


Forsaken

by Elle_chama



Series: World of Darkness [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Hunters, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Spirits, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/M, Family Secrets, Killing, Multi, Original Character(s), Original Mythology, Original Universe, Romance, War, inspired by Werewolf the Forsaken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 110,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29376261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elle_chama/pseuds/Elle_chama
Summary: Every circle has a beginning,in time, its own ending.The heritage binds their fate, The Oath binds their lifeThey walk on a thin line between sanity and frenzyThey who had long been ForsakenFor those blessed with a promise of LoveThey find protection in a warm embrace of devotionFor those cursed with a promise of LoveThe end comes with the cold embrace of death
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Original Human Character/Original Werewolf Character
Series: World of Darkness [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155089





	1. Chapter 1

The smell of blood was too strong for me to endure, so I climbed up to the roof of our hideout. It was an impressive building right in the middle of Sosari and it had a great view of the sky. There was a full moon and I was happy for that, since both Kangdae and Gwangjin were their strongest at such moments, so our pack survived the attack from our pure blood cousins well. They will never forgive our ancestors’ sins.

We are what humans call werewolves, but what they know about us doesn’t even get close to the truth. There are two kind of werewolves: the ones they fear and the ones they don’t know. The first are our pure blood cousins, the latter are the very few of us who actually protect the humans.

Our kind of werewolf has a sad story. Our ancestors rebelled against our father and killed him. For that sin we were banned from the spirit world and most of the spirits hate us. Our mother Luna forgave us, but at the same time cursed us for eternity. Now we live in the human world, protecting them from the spirits, our dear cousins and other creatures of the night such as vampires.

Differently from what humans think we don’t transform them into werewolves by biting them. We are born like any other creature, because a werewolf is only allowed to copulate with a human from the opposite sex, and we fall in love only once during out life span. We are not immortals either, we get old and die, although our life span is much longer than a human’s.

We live so close to them, walking between humans, and they don’t even notice we’re there. The most delicate moment in our lives is when we fall in love. From our pack, Sunhi and I were the only ones that didn’t fall in love yet, the only ones that didn’t suffer from losing their beloved humans.

And I had a feeling our turn was really near.


	2. New Moon

Yeonghae was lazily taking a stroll at the mall with his cousins, Seungi and Chanhyeok, when the latter called for their attention and pointed in a random direction. There was a girl trying to pull free from a guy’s grip, but the three friends noticed the guy was too pale, his eyes were just a little bit too shiny to be normal.

“It’s a ridden.” Seungi confirmed and the three friends walked in the ‘couple’s’ direction.

They were not three meters away when the guy looked in their direction and snorted for them to leave. The next second he felt a strong punch colliding with his chin, however, and the recognizable energy flowing from the three.

“You don’t treat a girl like that, you scum.” Yeonghae hissed.

The ridden promptly ran away. Yeonghae just smirked looking at Chanhyeok who nodded and excused himself to the toilet with a polite ‘hope you’re fine’ to the girl.

Seungi put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Are you ok? He didn’t do anything weird with you, right?” Her eyes immediately went to the new hand put on her shoulder and she pulled away from it, eyeing the two of them with slight suspicion.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she spoke with a soft voice, bowing her head slightly in thanks. “I will be on my way now.” She casted another suspicious look in the direction both Chanhyeok and the guy had left in, before starting to walk away. The two didn’t make any movement to follow her, instead they went in the direction their cousin had previously taken and she noticed it was actually not the path that leads to that floor’s restroom. Yeonghae eyed Seungi, who whispered something back and he looked at the girl from the corner of his eyes. Soon they had vanished from her sight.

“Meeyon!” someone called her then. “I’m here! Sorry I’m late!” A very handsome guy approached her.

She looked up upon hearing the voice, immediately starting to smile when she saw who it was. “Sam!” she happily exclaimed, walking a little faster until she reached him and immediately pulling him into a hug. “What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes!”

“Sorry. There was a traffic jam on my way here. It was a very ugly accident, two cars collided and one was even upside down,” He made a face at the scene but then smiled to her. “Let’s go.”

“Why don’t people learn how to drive more safely?” she sighed, taking hold of his hand and keeping him close to her. She still felt slightly uncomfortable, the memory of the few weird guys from just before still fresh in her mind. “So I need nice shoes for the graduation ball and you’re going to help me decide, yes?” she quickly changed the subject to something happier.

“Yes, let’s get you the shoes.” he agreed. They went on their way to the nearest shoe shop.

There were not many people there, so a salesperson walked up to them. “If you need help just call me, the name is Soomin.” The guy smiled politely.

Meeyon nodded at him with a smile, letting go of Simon’s hand to walk up to the huge amount of shoes she would have to choose from. She wasn’t a huge fan of shoes or shopping, but since she owned nothing but sneakers, she had to at least get something with a slight elegance for under her dress. The only reason she had brought Simon and not her other girl friends was because she hoped that at least he wouldn’t make her stay and look fifteen times at the same shoes before deciding none was good enough and visiting another store.

She looked through the shoes, discarding most by appearance alone, but trying some on as well. Most of them did not appeal to her, especially not when she told herself she had to walk and dance a whole evening on them. In the end, though, there was a select pair of cute red shoes with a bit of a heel that she liked quite a bit. After putting them on and realising they were comfortable too, she quickly walked over to where Simon was sitting, putting a foot on his knee so she could show off the shoe.

“What do you think?” she then asked, a happy smile on her face.

“Ouch, it hurts.” He made a face but inspected the shoes anyway. “It’s quite pretty, but what colour is your dress again?” he questioned raising an eyebrow at the shoe.

Before she could reply, though, a happy shriek came from their left.“Kangdae oppa! I found it! I want this one!” There was a beautiful girl with long wavy hair swirling around with sparkly stilettos on.

“Then I’m not buying the other five pairs you mentioned before those,” a tall muscular guy grumped, sitting a few chairs away from them. The girl pouted and the guy waved. “I’m hungry, Sunhi. Can I pay already?” the girl smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically.

Meeyon rolled her eyes at Simon’s comment, replying to him with a short ‘red’ right as someone shrieked some words, the sound so loud it drowned her answer. She looked up, slightly disturbed by the noise. Her eyes scanned the girl and her huge stilettos, pausing only shortly on the guy before she turned back to Simon. “My dress has several colors running over in each other, but it’s mostly red. Believe me, the shoes will go great with the dress when it comes to color. Do you think the heel is too high, though?” she then repeated herself, adding a bunch more information to it than she had done before. She turned her foot a little so he could take in the full height of the heel.

“I think you’ll be fine with it. I mean you’re actually able to stand on one foot with the other up here,” and he patted her foot smiling. “I think you found it. Quite luck today. What about going for lunch now?” he smiled widely.

She agreed with a happy nod, putting her foot on the ground again. “I’ll have to pay for the shoes first, though.” she said with a grin, leaning down to take off the shoes. She walked back to her sneakers and the shoebox, putting on the first and tucking the heels back in the latter. With the item of her choosing, she then walked up to the sales lady to pay.

While the lady was processing the debit in her credit card, another rather loud voice boomed beside her where the tall guy from earlier was still paying for the six shoes the girl had chosen. “Kangdae hyung, finally found you, Yeonghae called saying they are waiting to have lun... Sunhi... do you really need that any shoes? How many she tried?”

When once again some people were being obnoxiously loud, she turned to look at them with a frown. There was the same guy from before and the girl who was watching him pay, but now a third one had joined them. He was huge. Not really tall or extremely fat, but something about him made her feel extremely tiny and irrelevant. Without realising it, she kept eyeing the three of them, but she got pulled out of her daze when the lady handed her the bag with her purchase. She quickly took her card back and smiled as she took the bag, turning away then and walking up to Simon.

“Sam, why don’t you pay for my shoes like that guy does?” she asked him, grinning to show she was just joking.

“I’m not your boyfriend.” Simon grinned back eyeing the people she was talking about, his eyes stopped at the girl who looked up and met his gaze, for him it felt like the world had stopped, for the girl, well, she felt cursed but at the same time blessed.

The two guys with the girl looked at Simon, the one that had just arrived made a grave face while the other just grinned. “I’m not her boyfriend either,” he suddenly said winking at Simon, what made the girl blush and hit his arm.

“Kangdae Oppa!”

Meeyon immediately nudged Simon’s arm when the guy said that. “See, Sam, you should pay for my shoes too!” she exclaimed.

“Why would I? It’s not even your birthday.” Simon retorted not knowing why he felt relieved at knowing the girl was not going out with that guy.

“Then again I’m her older brother, see you guys.” Kangdae waved with a loud laugh and pulled his friends saying he was indeed too hungry for all the hours he had to wait for the princess to choose her shoes.

Simon looked after them unable to move when the girl looked back and smiled at him.

Looking from Simon to the girl and back, Meeyon felt some strange atmosphere, so she nudged Simon’s arm again. “Hey little one, is it a nice view?” she asked, her tone amused.

Simon seemed to snap and looked at his friend. “Do you believe in love at first sight?” he questioned urging her to move so they could go eat.

“I’m not sure, but I think you just started believing in it.” she replied, grinning widely. She hooked her arm in his and pulled him along to the nearest food store, wanting to get something in her stomach before it started growling.

“Whatever. After we eat it’s your turn to help me look for a nice tux.” he grinned, letting her lead their way to the food court.

The moment she walked inside, her eyes fell on a bunch of all too familiar people. There were the guys who had ‘saved’ her from the weird man earlier and the group of three they had seen in the shoe store just before. They were greeting each other, exchanging grins and witty comments, obviously friends. It was her turn to stare at them, her eyes darting from one guy to the next, until she ended at the girl.

“Well, look there, Sam, your girlfriend-to-be is here too.” she then joked, continuing her walk to one of the free tables, not too far from the group.

“I’m doomed, I see. What do you want to eat?” Simon questioned but kept on stealing glances at the other table. Somehow that girl seemed to draw his attention like a magnet.

Meeyon mentioned the food of her choice, but noticed Simon wasn’t paying much attention. She kicked his leg under the table, frowning at him. “You’re being obvious, Sam.” she said, smiling amused.

At the other table Sunhi was getting pretty much the same treatment from the five guys with her, only one was not teasing. The whole group had obviously noticed the two when they arrived. They were happily talking when one of them suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of another group of guys that had entered the court. Immediately the whole group calmed down, somewhat tensing up in their seats.

When the noise behind her suddenly stopped, Meeyon couldn’t help peeking in their direction to see what was going on. All their eyes were pointing in the same direction and when she looked that way she saw a different group of young men. Were they in a gang and was this a rivalling one or something?

To her surprise the girl and the skinnier guy from them stood up and walked in the direction of the other group, passing them and walking into an Italian stand, the other two that ‘helped’ her stood up and went in the direction of a fast-food stand, and the two from the shoe store remained at their joined tables. The one that had talked to them had a big smirk plastered on his face, but in the end nothing seemed to happen.

One week later there she was. Finally graduated, wearing a pretty, colourful dress, sporting her newly bought red shoes and ready to dance the night away. Or at least, that was the plan. But first she had to convince her prom date - Simon to be more exact - that dancing was not something he’d look ridiculous doing. With her best convincing skills she pleaded with him, but he kept politely refusing, until she started threatening with things she had learned about him in their past three years of friendship, which was when he finally got up and walked onto the dance floor with her, right as a slower song started playing. She facepalmed, but in the end still pulled him further into the huge group of people. She wasn’t going to let the opportunity to dance pass just like that.

They danced through the slow song, but when the song was about to end someone tapped her shoulder and asked if she could dance with Simon. It didn’t take much time for Meeyon to recognize the girl from the shoe store cutely looking at her.

She smiled and let go of her friend, nodding shortly at the girl. “Of course, he’s all yours.” she said, sending Simon a happy grin as she walked past him to go back to the table she had been sitting at earlier. But before she took three steps a hand was reached in front of her. “I’ll be your partner then. I thought you looked familiar at the mall.”

She let her eyes wander from the hand in front of her, over the arm to the young man’s face. He was looking at her with a happy smile. Her eyes scanned his face for a moment and she frowned. It took only a moment longer for her to realise he was the one out of the three guys helping her, who left again immediately after. Looking at his hand once more, she decided it didn’t really matter who she danced with, as long as she was able to dance, so she put her hand in his, smiling back at him.

“I hope you’re more fond of dancing than Sam.” she replied, hearing how a much more upbeat song started to play.

“Dancing is my passion, my friends don’t call me the ‘dance machine’ for nothing,” the guy replied with a proud smirk. “The name is Chanhyeok. With whom do I have the pleasure to dance?” he stated already moving to the beat.

She couldn’t help snorting at his nickname, raising her eyebrows in amusement. Yet he did seem to have a feeling for dance, because his body moved along well to the music. She moved along herself as well, his question making her look at him with a slight smile. “I’m not sure if it’s a pleasure, but the name is Meeyon.” she replied, yet her soft voice went lost in the music before it even reached her own ears. She therefore leaned closer to him and repeated the same words next to his ear.

He chuckled at how clueless the girl seemed to him for doing that, he could hear her perfectly from where she was standing but of course he could never let her know that.

They danced throughout the whole ball, until she felt thirsty. “I need to go grab a drink.” she told him, this time being smart enough to immediately stand close enough to him to be understandable. She pointed at the bar and sent him a smile. “Perhaps try and find my friends too, see if they’re still alive...and sober. Perhaps you should find your friends too.”

He smiled, “You go. I’ll still dance. The only two I’d have to look for are dancing.” He pointed at Simon still dancing with the other girl and then to another direction where she recognized the punch-guy dancing quite nicely as well. “But you know, I think I could have a very good duel with Yeonghae.” He patted her shoulder before walking in his friend’s direction.

Even though she had said she should find her friends, seeing the other boy – apparently Yeonghae – dance left her staring once again. It took a full minute for her to realise – someone had to bump against her for her to wake up from her daze – and when she did, she quickly set off to the bar. She got herself a simple cola, sipping from it as she walked to the table she had previously occupied with her friends. Close to the wall, Hyungjin was making out with his girlfriend, so she took a chair and turned her back on them, looking at the dancing crowd.

It didn’t take long before she spotted Chanhyeok again. He was dancing next to Yeonghae and they both looked like they were enjoying it a lot. In fact, the view of the both of them was stunning. Yet her eyes kept being pulled back to Yeonghae, no matter what she did.

A very hip-hop upbeat song started a few minutes after and she noticed Yeonghae stopped and Chanhyeok took a bit of a distance seemingly dancing alone after a few movements he pointed at Yeonghae who smirked and did a series of moves himself, they kept alternating until the dance floor belonged to them, the couples dancing stopped to look at them.

There was a smile on her face as she watched, the obvious love of these two friends for dancing and their happiness doing it so contagious even she – so far away – could feel it. They gave off a very content vibe and she soon found herself tapping her feet to the rhythm. All that time, however, her eyes were glued to Yeonghae. Something about the way he moved, something about the way the tip of his tongue showed as he did a more difficult dance move made her whole body scream ‘mine!’ to her.

Yet someone else stepped in their world and pulled both their ties making the duo stop and eye her. Sunhi quickly landed a kiss on Chanhyeok’s cheek then on Yeonghae’s. The two froze in their spots as she started to dance to the beat alone, as if she had cast a spell on both of them. She then danced her way to Simon dragging him to dance with her again and soon all the other couples followed. Yeonghae and Chanhyeok walked out of the dance floor not long after laughing at the antics of Sunhi.

Meeyon watched it all, and when everyone got back to dancing, she followed the two with her eyes as they walked away. Without realising it, she got up from her chair and walked over to them, casually sitting down on a chair next to them as if it was the most normal thing to do in the world.

“Nice dancing.” she complimented, looking at Chanhyeok and giving him a grin. “I can see why they call you the dancing machine. Want to drink something from me?” With that question, she turned to look at Yeonghae too, because the offer involved him as well. And then the world stopped turning when Yeonghae turned to her and their eyes met.

Chanhyeok grinned at both their expressions reminiscing that one particular time it happened to him. “It would be great, yes. Yeonghae this is Meeyon. You remember her right?”

After some serious gathering of willpower to break the eye contact, Yeonghae seemed to snap out of his daze and faced his friend with a lost expression. It was not that he had forgotten who she was, but more that he was curious as to how and why Hyeok knew the girl’s name.

When Yeonghae looked away from Meeyon, it was as if someone had just pressed play again after pausing the movie of her life. She shrugged off the unfamiliar feeling, trying to get back to the present. When she finally remembered what speaking was and how to do it, she cleared her throat and looked at Chanhyeok again – it felt safer than looking at Yeonghae.

“I do remember how he punched that guy for me the other day. Quite a coincidence that I’ve never noticed you in school before and now we keep bumping into each other.” she said, her tone light and happy, much different from the messy rumble her mind was. “So what can I get you two?”

“A coke” the two replied in unison and then chuckled. “We don’t like to socialize that much, it may be the cause, but this was our last gathering for high school so we kind of agreed we had to come.” Chanhyeok lied while Yeonghae turned to search for Sunhi.

“I’m sure your friend who so kindly stole my Sam from me had some say in this too. From what I’ve learned, girls in my year don’t want to miss the graduation ball for anything in the world.” she replied, getting up and starting to walk over to the bar. She ordered three colas, manoeuvring through the crowd with them. Somehow she managed to get them all the way back to the table, putting them down and then looking up to see what the boys were doing.

There was an addition at their table, a very happy Simon chattering away with a very happy Sunhi, Yeonghae was talking on the phone and Chanhyeok was tapping his finger at the table in time with the beat. When Yeonghae ended the call, both Chanhyeok and Sunhi turned to him.

“It was Kangdae hyung, Wonshik hyung is back and apparently with good news,” he said. The two smiled before Chanhyeok snatched one of the cokes and drank from it without a second thought.

“Thank you, Meeyon,” he beamed all happy. “As the older one I say we dance for one more hour and then head home!” He immediately walked up to the dance floor again. Sunhi leaned on Simon’s shoulder and he leaned in to peck her, but the peck didn’t end as a peck.

Yeonghae turned once again to Meeyoon, making sure not to strike eye contact again. “Thank you for the drink.”

She smiled at the thanks. “You’re welcome,” she replied, and then, out of a deep-rooted instinct to stay sane, turned away from him. “I’ll go dance some more as well, while I still have a partner.” she announced, following Chanhyeok into the crowd. She soon found him again and it didn’t take long for her to be dancing like nothing else mattered. It was strange, having her eyes constantly wandering back to Yeonghae, but most of all it scared the crap out of her – and that was still an understatement.

It was indeed after another hour of dancing that the two boys and Sunhi left, leaving behind a rather bewildered Simon, who didn’t seem to realise exactly what had happened to him to have been kissing with a girl he got to know only that same day. Yet Meeyon convinced him that it was alright, that Sunhi didn’t seem to be someone to use him for a day. After all, they did exchange phone numbers and a whole lot of other information too, probably, that she didn’t know about.

Simon left the party an hour later, asking her if it was alright to leave her there like that. She told him it was no problem, that she’d go home with Hyungjin. There was no need for Simon to know Hyungjin had long left with his girlfriend, probably to take all that kissing to the next level. So two hours after her dance partner left, she shouldered her bag and set for home as well.

But she was not even two blocks away from the school grounds when someone forcedly pulled her into an alley. It was a big blur of fast movements, before the stranger basically threw her against a wall. She had hit her head pretty hard and her vision blurred, so she closed her eyes to try to block the image of that man walking up to her with lust visible in his eyes. She could faintly hear him saying she ought to be really tasty.

She didn’t know what to do, her whole body was paralyzed. It seemed like she heard the footsteps come to a stop after something else landed on the ground. There was some guttural sound and then a voice she had never expected to hear; Yeonghae’s.

“You, riddens, never learn!” Yeonghae hissed. The words made no sense to her so she forced her eyes open, only to see Yeonghae’s back. He was taking off his shirt and tossing it aside. The little light from the gibbous moon was somewhat enough for her to see Yeonghae’s back getting broader and hairier, his hands getting bigger and his nails longer.

She stared, her mouth opening to scream, but then it seemed to have never opened because there was no sound. Her heart started beating so wildly that it might have jumped out of her chest if there weren’t any ribs in the way. Right in the middle of her soundless scream, her brain decided a shutdown was the best option and she sunk away into darkness, a faint growl sounding in her ears as if coming from far.

Yeonghae had transformed into his nearly human form – that his kind referred to as dalu form – for he didn’t have time to get naked nor would he do that in front of Meeyon, even if she was unconscious, so keeping his pants was the best idea he could think off.

He jumped at the man and started to bite him, but Meeyon’s aggressor managed to get free, stretching forwards and attack Yeonghae’s back. The nearly human beast escaped from it, though, and right after, he opened his mouth and dashed towards the possessed man. His attack was deflected and the man stepped forwards, thrusting his dagger in Yeonghae’s ribs.

Feeling the wound, Yeonghae made a fake movement and tried to bite the man’s ankles. Unable to escape, the man suffered a wound as well, but no blood came out of his body. Furious, the aggressor waved his right hand and his dagger was thrown in the direction of Yeonghae’s heart. It was almost invisible, but Yeonghae escaped from it, his huge body turning swiftly. He lashed out at the man with his claws, causing a mark and making the other scream. The man still tried to counterattack but his movements were too slow.

Yeonghae chanted in a long forgotten tongue before finishing his enemy off, savouring the essence of the spirit. The man was actually a ridden, a human possessed by a violent spirit and had no means of being saved. It was his job as a werewolf, as an uratha, to clean his territory from those enemies and whichever spirit that decided to lure around there.

An hour later, Meeyon woke up from her strange dream due to the sun shining into her room. A relaxed smile appeared on her face as she huddled deeper into her blankets. That’s when she realised there were no blankets and something was completely off about the idea of waking up to sunlight. For example; where was the warmth of the sun? With a start, she opened her eyes, peering right into a different pair. She shot up, almost hitting her head against the other person’s and quickly crawled backwards, away from the hold.

“Don’t touch me!” she warned, faintly realising she had nothing to defend herself with. She quickly grabbed the thing nearest to her and got hold of a brick, clutching it close to her as if she would be able to defend herself with it.

“Take it easy, Meeyon. I’m not going to harm you.” A very familiar voice reached her senses.

She stared, peering into the dark and trying to figure out who was talking to her. The voice was familiar, but her head was starting to hurt and she could not remember where she knew the voice from even if her life depended on it.

“Who are you?” she therefore asked.

“The name is Chanhyeok. Either your memory is short or the impact in your head was really strong,” the other spoke playfully in an attempt to calm her. “Do you remember anything from what happened here?” he asked, casually stepping closer so he could inspect if she had any other bruises. She immediately lifted the brick, however, holding it in front of her as a defence, so he couldn’t come too close.

“I’m having a severe headache, but that’s all as far as I know. It is very dark in here so forgive me if I’m not a genius with voices.” she retorted, her tone slightly biting. “Where is my bag?”

Chanhyeok stopped not wanting to get her more worked up. He merely looked around until he spotted it a little closer to the wall and further from where she was standing. He walked back to grab it and then threw the little purse in her direction.

“Hyeok, is she awake?” another unfamiliar voice sounded behind her.

When something suddenly landed very close to her she tensed up again and the unfamiliar voice behind her didn’t help either. Grabbing the brick more tightly, she turned, feeling around with her hands and moving until she sat against the wall. There were a million questions rushing through her head, like ‘Who are you all? How many are here? What is going on? I was on my way home, why did I get dragged into this alley?’ but she remained silent, waiting for what was to happen next.

Chanhyeok sighed “Uncle, you scared her!”

The other merely shrugged walking up to where Meeyon was. “Hey, it’s ok. No one here is going to hurt you. Actually we were passing by here on our way home when we heard you scream. We saw some dude trying to rape you and we interfered because Chanhyeok and Yeonghae said you were their friend. Now tell me, child, how are you feeling?” Only when he was so up close to her did she notice the man talking to her was much older, probably around the age of her father. She narrowed her eyes at him, putting the brick down beside her and pushing herself up with her hands.

“With all due respect, ahjussi, but I do not appreciate people lying to me. I’m feeling fine, I just want my bag and go home.” she bit out, looking around now that her eyes were getting used to the dark and trying to spot her bag. When she saw it not too far away from her – probably where she had sat before – she realised that must have been the thing thrown to her earlier. She walked up to it to pick it up, clutching it close to her as she set for the big road.

The man held her wrist and made her look into his eyes. “I said someone tried to rape you and you screamed for help, we were nearby and helped you, since you had collapsed we waited till you woke up, Yeonghae went after the rapist that managed to escape while Chanhyeok kept you company.” The words had some kind of effect in her, some part of her mind knew it was a lie, another part accepted it. The man had just resorted to an ability to make her believe in his story.

Her mind screamed at her to pull free and run, run as fast as her legs could carry her, but she stayed in place, staring at him without being able to move or reply. There was a memory she knew with all her heart was true, even though this man’s explanation didn’t match with it. Somewhere in her mind, she locked away that memory, hid it away from everything so it wouldn’t be harmed.

“Monster..” she whispered, almost inaudibly, before suddenly cringing and reaching for her head in obvious pain.

“Yes, the rapist was a monster. You don’t have to fear him anymore. Don’t think about it anymore. You’re safe and your parents must be very worried about you. Let Hyeok accompany you, you’re friends, right?” The man smiled and motioned for Hyeok to come closer. Said person did, ready to stop if Meeyon showed herself still reluctant.

She swallowed, softly stroking her forehead with her eyes closed, hoping to limit the pain. For a moment she felt herself sink away again, but she quickly opened her eyes to prevent herself from fainting once more. There was no way she was going to let herself be vulnerable again in front of these strangers.

“My parents aren’t home this weekend,” she randomly mentioned, looking up at Chanhyeok and taking a hesitant step closer to him. “I think I hit my head pretty hard, could you take me to the hospital?”

“Yes, sure, I’ll ask Sunhi to tell Simon about you, if you get to stay longer there. Come with me, I called my cousin to come pick us up, he is waiting close by.” Chanhyeok smiled softly and approached her to lead her to the car.

With a last suspicious look at the ahjussi, she followed Chanhyeok out of the alley, leaving behind a part of her beliefs in that dark place. Once they were far enough away from the old man, but not yet at the car, she took hold of Chanhyeok’s wrist, stopping in her tracks.

“What about Yeonghae? Is he alright? It’s not safe for him to go after a rapist alone,” she said, voice soft, eyes scanning his face.

“He didn’t go alone, don’t worry. Two of our cousins went with him. You know, that ahjusshi is our uncle and we all live with him; seven troublesome kids for him to deal with. When we got home we heard he was finally back from his trip to the mountains but that he decided to take a stroll. We actually live nearby so we came to look for him, that’s when we heard you. Yeonghae got really furious. He is a good fighter you don’t have to worry. Now let’s go take you to the hospital, I want to dance with you again in the future.” He chuckled pulling her to walk again.

One thing was for sure, she couldn’t tell if Hyeok was lying or not, everything emanating from him made her trust she was safe with him. She silently walked along with him, but as they reached the car, right before he could open the door, she spoke again.

“Yeonghae is a monster.” It was not a question, nor a particularly offending insult, but merely a statement. Something she had seen with her own eyes and believed to be true.

Chanhyeok stopped dead in his tracks. Her words trigged an alarm in him. Meeyon may know too much. He knew perfectly well Yeonghae had found his other half, but they hadn’t forged a bond yet, so she was still a mere human. He didn’t want to be the one to kill Meeyon and inflict such a pain in his best friend and cousin. “Please, don’t repeat that. Don’t ever say that again, if you don’t want Yeonghae to suffer, don’t say anything like that again. I beg you.”

Her eyes went to his face when he spoke and slowly realisation downed on her. “So it’s true...” she mumbled, bringing the memory back to the front of her mind, picturing the image she had doubted could be true, but now was sure of. Suddenly panic rose up in her and something seemed to block her throat. She swallowed, closing her eyes and swallowing again. Her legs felt wobbly, her heart pounded heavily in her chest and she had a sense of wanting to protect what she only knew as a monster. “I think I might faint again. When I wake up, let’s pretend none of this ever happened.” she whispered to the young man next to her, putting her hand on his and weakly leaning against him. It was too much for her to take in, too many fairytales gone reality or whatever the heck was going on.

When she woke up again she was in a hospital room, an IV bag attached to her. There were flowers in a vase at her bed side table, and no one was in the room. After looking around, she lay back down and stared up at the ceiling, trying to forget everything that had happened after she left the ball. She blinked and closed her eyes again, lifting a hand to rub her face. “That was all a dream.” she assured herself, although she didn’t believe those words.

A few minutes later a nurse entered her room and checked on her. She asked the usual questions and tried to make Meeyon feel better. She assured everything was fine and that soon a doctor would come tell her when she would be discharged. A few hours later a doctor did come in, telling her she had hit her head pretty badly but that it seemed nothing major had happened. She would feel a headache now and then, but it would go away in a few days. If she was feeling strong enough she could go home, he told her. “Your medical bill has already been taken care off, so you can go, your friend is outside ready to take you home.”

She wanted to ask which friend, but decided she’d see that when she got outside, so once the doctor left, she got dressed again. The only piece of clothing she had was her dress from the previous day and the high heels. It felt a little like being overdressed, wearing a fancy dress in a hospital, but she didn’t have anything else so it had to do. After passing by the reception to let them know she was gone, she finally stepped out of the hospital, clutching her bag tightly, not sure who to expect outside.

“Meeyon! I’m never believing you again! How could you!? Why didn’t you want me to escort you back home?! Look what almost happened to you!” Simon’s deadly worried face came into view before she felt his strong arms wrapping around her. “I was so worried when Sunhi called me and told me what happened! Do you want to give me a heart attack?”

She felt relieved and disappointed at the same. Part of her wanted it to be Yeonghae. Part of her wanted explanations, details, truths. But the other part was happy enough being hugged by Simon and just crawling away in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she wailed to him, the emotions finally getting the upper hand. She felt tears in her eyes, but didn’t try to blink them away. “I didn’t expect that to happen, I mean.. What are the odds of getting dragged into an alley by some rapist?” She sobbed once, before silencing herself and just holding him tightly.

Simon didn’t say anything else. Just kept his arms around her for a few more minutes before nudging her to move. “Hey, let’s get you home and make you some very nourishing meal, then we can play videogames all day. Ok?”

She nodded a little, wiping her damp eyes. Suddenly she felt like being watched, but when she glanced around there was no one to be seen. Feeling completely unsafe after the events of the previous day, she took hold of Simon’s hand, holding it tightly as she walked along with him to his car.

The ride home was quiet, now and then Simon trying to talk about trivialities to lighten her mood. Back at her house, Simon made her lunch and then set the videogames, they played for hours but somehow she was still feeling watched, like there was someone in her garden watching her from behind a bush.

Simon made her dinner but excused himself after, as he had promised his parents to be back for dinner. As the filial son he was, he wouldn’t break that promise. He left after he made sure the windows were well closed and that her front door would be safely locked after he left.

When he was gone, Meeyon went up to her room, basically barricading herself inside so that no one would come in. She sat down on her bed, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. She was scared, to say the least. After what happened last night, she was sure her house was surrounded by bad people, evil spirits and other things like that. Even the slightest sound made her more anxious. If anything, she was sure she wouldn’t survive the night.

The next moment she heard some noises from her garden like someone was walking around in it. With wide eyes she stared at her window. She was happy the light in her room was out so at least they wouldn’t know exactly where she was in the house. Being too curious to what or who was outside, however, she snuck down from her bed, slowly walking to the window and peeking outside into the garden.

She saw a dog wandering around. Or maybe it was not, it was a little too big to be a dog. Suddenly it stopped moving and looked up exactly to the window she was at. Shocked, she froze in place, but couldn’t tear her eyes away from the animal. In fact, if there hadn’t been glass in the way, she would probably have jumped down the four meters to go towards it.

The ‘dog’ strode to the glass door that connected the living room with the garden and therefore went out of her view. She could faintly hear some screeching sound coming from downstairs.

She immediately stepped away from the window, her heart beating at an insane speed. The screeching sounds downstairs became even worse and she suddenly bolted out of her room, down the stairs, to the living room. If he damaged the glass door her parents were going to kill her for sure.

The moment she was visible to him, the ‘dog’ stopped his action and just stared at her. Once again time froze. Seconds, minutes, hours, they all became unimportant as her eyes were linked with this creature’s light blue ones. Slowly she started moving. It felt as if she was trying to make her way through a thick liquid, moving yet not really getting anywhere, but at some point she did reach the door. She put a hand on the window, standing so close that her breath fogged up the glass, but still she didn’t feel as if it was close enough.

The ‘dog’ wailed as if asking to be allowed inside. She didn’t think, just moved. She took hold of the door handle, unlocking the door and easily slipping it open so he could come inside. The steps were slow as it entered and sniffed her legs. The dog nuzzled his head against her legs as if asking to be caressed, wailing softly.

She closed the door, locked it again even, before moving away from the animal. She had no idea what to do next, no idea what to expect. She was pretty sure that this animal was Yeonghae – it looked a lot like the memory she had securely stored away – but still there were doubts. And after all; who was Yeonghae anyway? She didn’t know him at all. With trembling hands, she reached out to the thing, but right before touching it, quickly pulled away again. She backed away even more, until she was able to sit down in the couch.

“Y-Yeonghae?” she finally uttered, her voice nothing more than a whisper, her whole body tense.

The ‘dog’ moved to behind the couch and soon after Yeonghae’s voice filled the air. “Don’t look over here, unless you want to see someone naked,” His voice was soft. “I’m sorry.”

She got up once he spoke, walking away from the couch without looking back. She disappeared through the door, rmommyging around in a room next door and then coming back. She stopped at the door, sticking only her hand inside, with the bathrobe in it. “Here, put this on.” she told him, her face turned away from the door.

She heard some soft footsteps and then felt him taking the robe from her. After he put it on, he pulled her to look at him, his eyes were worried, his expression extremely concerned. “Tell me what you saw yesterday.” he ordered and it had a similar effect of the ajusshi’s words, urging her to obey.

“Don’t…” she started, but the ‘do that to me’ didn’t follow anymore as she answered his question. “You taking of your shirt and changing,” She blinked, realising she had answered him and shook her head. “Don’t do that to me.” she then objected again, pulling free from his grip and walking back to the couch. She had to sit down before she’d faint again. Since when did she become so scared of everything anyway?

“I was careless, I thought you were unconscious… I knew it would happen to me sooner or later, just never thought it would be this brief… By now do you know what I am?” he questioned still softly but didn’t let her answer. “I don’t kill humans Meeyon, I protect them, but there are rules we must follow, and one is to never reveal what we are, humans must not know about the ones at our side of reality, for those humans only death awaits.”

“So because you made a mistake I’m going to die?” she countered, disbelief obvious in her voice. “It’s not my fault you had to come jump right in front of me to change. Couldn’t you have changed before running in? Why are you even here, Yeonghae, I don’t know you. What is this insanity?” She pulled up her legs again, hiding her face against her knees and closing her eyes tightly to ban the world out. It obviously didn’t work.

“I didn’t think... When I saw the ridden, when I saw him attacking you, when I noticed you were not moving… My instincts told me to just step in between and not allow that thing to get any closer to you. I came because of another rule that may save you, and this insanity is my cruel reality.” he replied, looking at her with care.

She lifted her head, looking at him with a frown. “Shut up.” she suddenly said, her eyes ablaze with anger, but soon she was merely stammering words again. “Shut up, don’t say that. It’s not true. It’s not true. It’s a dream. I told him all of this would be a dream. Go away,” She didn’t want him to go away, she wanted him to stay. She wanted him to hug her and tell her it was a joke. She wanted him to start smiling and tease her about being silly enough to believe all that nonsense. “Go away...” She sobbed.

He said nothing, just walked towards her. He kneeled in front of her and pulled her face in between his hands and forced her to look into his eyes. For the first time the world didn’t freeze, but she still couldn’t look away from his eyes, as if captured by them. In the next second it was the warmness of his lips moving against hers. His eyes still looking deeply in hers and if waiting for them to close. He knew things didn’t move as fast in a human heart, but because he was immature her life was at risk. If she would accept him at least a little, he wouldn’t break his vow, he wouldn’t commit a sin against Luna, forever his mother, and he would be able to keep her alive even if she knew the truth.

She was surprised, to say the least. Shocked. Stunned. Her heart went into overdrive, her eyes fluttered closed and she momentarily forgot where she was. But then reality hit her and she pushed him away. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice lacking the poison she really wanted to put in it.

“Trying to keep you alive,” he said feeling rejected but at the same time knowing he would not commit a sin anymore. She felt the same, or at least she would come to fully feel the same in the future. He knew he could wait for it. “I know you are not ready, and maybe you’ll never be, but I can wait for it. More like I cannot just give up on you...”

She stared at him, mouth slightly agape, before recovering. “You are crazy, right?” she then asked, but she made no move to get away from him. Instead she even took hold of his chin, turning his head to the left, then the right, then up, inspecting all sides before letting go again. She shook her head shortly. “Yeonghae, do me a favour, will you?”

He didn’t ask what she wanted like he was supposed to. He just stood up, made sure the robe was well closed and then sat beside her taking the liberty of pulling her on his lap and resting her upper body against his chest, wrapping his arms around her. He uttered no words, just savouring the happy feel of having her want him near her still.

She was silent for a moment, before turning her head the best she could to look at him. “How did you know I was going to ask that?” she questioned, her voice almost too soft for even her to hear.

He chuckled. “I have talents I can use once a day. Let’s say, before I even came here I knew something like this could happen.” He silenced for a second before adding. “Used all of them on you today already, so rest assured.”

“The ‘forcing me to do stuff’ thingy was one of them too, right?” she uttered, feeling more confident now that he seemed to be much like any other human – or at least he felt like one. “Don’t use that on me anymore, it makes me uncomfortable,” For a moment she stared at the door he had come in through, before sighing. “Please tell me there’s nothing hunting for me. I’ve been scared to death ever since I left the hospital.”

He tightened his embrace on her. “I felt it at the mall. You have much spiritual energy flowing in you, so spirits may be inclined to want to eat you. There’s a chance you may be attacked, but I’ll make sure to be there to protect you... About the thing hunting you since you left the hospital; it was me.” he explained and confessed, knowing he was scaring her but also knowing the information was now necessary.

“So creepy things are hunting me and you’re the creepy thing that kills the creepy things?” she summed it up, closing her eyes and sighing again. “Before last week I was a normal, graduating student, now I believe in things that aren’t supposed to exist,” She snorted at the irony of it all, but huddled closer to him anyway, turning a little so instead of her back, her side was resting against him. “Simon... He’s got the same going on with Sunhi as we do, right?” she then asked.

He thought for a while before replying. “Yes, but Sunhi doesn’t want to let him know yet, she wants to prepare him. I’m sorry. In our pack…we were the only ones that didn’t find their companions. All the others practically already even lost them.”

“I wish her good luck with that. Simon is a devoted Believer. It will shock him to the core to find things like you exist,” she replied. “And even though I have a big fantasy of my own, some preparation wouldn’t have hurt, you know,” There was a biting tone in everything she said, a defence mechanism against people who got too much control over her without her allowing them to. “So what is expected of me now? Except for not talking about it to anyone or they’ll die.”

“Nothing. You only have to keep the secret. If you tell others not only they will die, but I’ll not be allowed to protect you anymore, and will even be forced to be the one executing you,” he told her in a whisper. “I didn’t want to get close to you... after that day at the mall... while everybody was teasing Sunhi... I felt a strange need to look at you... but I knew you were looking at me so I was afraid. I knew it would happen one day but when I saw Hyeok killing his mate, when I saw how he was devastated for decades... I didn’t want that to happen to me. But even though I can foresee things, I hate myself for not being able to notice you were awake. I’m really sorry I ended up dragging you into my world, it was against both our wills.”

She was silent for a while, taking in all that information. The first thing coming to mind to say was ‘Well, at least in some time I’ll be able to talk with Simon about it,’ but she swallowed that sentence back in before saying it. Instead, she turned her head to look at him and patted his stomach shortly. “It’s okay, I guess,” she then said. “I have no idea why I’m so calm about it all, but apparently I am. Perhaps if you visit me tomorrow I’ll cry and keep saying it’s all a dream or something like that. For now it’s okay anyway,” There was a relaxed smile on her face, something that surprised even her, but she wrapped her arms around him without thinking, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes. “I don’t like kisses, by the way,” she hummed then. “I’m not so fond of any physical contact that involves my face. I love hugs, though.”

He squeezed her a little taking in her scent before replying. “We can work with that. Yes… I can come by in the future, right? Where will you study at?” he questioned already pondering what he could do to stay around her.

“I don’t know. We’ll see that... You can come by... Perhaps I should introduce you to my parents first, you know,” she mumbled, smiling slightly. “They’ve never seen me interact with any other guy than Simon, so I guess it’ll be quite the surprise for them. I should introduce Chanhyeok as well at once. I could call you my saviours, because Sam will certainly tell my parents about last night’s events...” Her voice became softer and softer as she talked. Something about his scent made her feel very relaxed.

“Then I should bring Seungi hyung as well,” he chuckled... “He was the one that drove you to the hospital. Also the one with us at the mall,” he hoped she could recall him even if they had never really met again, since on the second meeting she was unconscious. “Just tell me when we should come.” he added after another subtle sniff of her scent. He was getting addicted to her smell.

She frowned, trying to come up with the face of whomever he was talking about. “The guy putting his hand on my shoulder?” she questioned, before suddenly sitting up, remembering something. “Oh dear God, no.” she exclaimed, standing up and rushing to the phone.

“What’s wrong?” he followed her movements with his eyes not making any movement to stand up.

“I totally forgot my brother was coming over,” she said, quickly jamming the keys for his phone number and calling, waiting for him to pick up.

“Should I leave then?” Now he did stand up already looking at the garden and thinking which way was the best to go back home.

“Did I say that?” she muttered with a frown, right as her brother picked up, already grumbling at her. “Oppa, I’m so sorry. I was in the hospital today. Where are you right now? Did you find a place to stay? I’m home now you can come by.”

“What? The hospital!?” her brother boomed through the phone and she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’m fine. Now are you around or did you already book a place to stay?”

“No, I’m coming over. Make sure you open the door for me this time.” he huffed and she stuck out her tongue at the phone.

“Sure, oppa, I’ll be here. See you in a bit.”

“Ten minutes.”

“See you in ten minutes.” she corrected herself, hanging up and making an annoyed face at the machine, before putting it back in place. She then turned back to Yeonghae. “I think we were cuddling, right?” she asked him, her face lighting up with a smile.

He smiled back “I don’t think your brother will like to see his precious sister alone with a guy dressed only in a bathrobe with no clothes from him around. I better go. I don’t want your brother to have a bad first impression of me,” he pulled her hand and kissed it before squeezing her and taking one last gulf of her scent. “Now if you could just turn around so I can transform it would be good.” he added softly with a childish smile.

She frowned, then pouted at his words, keeping her hand around his and not averting her eyes for even the slightest moment so he wouldn’t change and run on her. “You should not go just because my brother’s coming. It’s none of his business who I have in the house. My brother is seriously boring. I don’t want to listen to his stories, which he thinks are funny. Please stay? I’ll give you some clothes from dad, my brother won’t notice.”

He smiled at her, enjoying the idea of her using him as a life-saver from boredom, one more good point to keep her alive. Also, not being able to avert his eyes from her, Yeonghae agreed. “If you say he won’t notice, I hope the clothes will fit me, though if not I could turn into a wolf and fake to be your pet with whom you’ll keep playing while he talks.” The idea popped in his head just like that and it made him smile brighter.

“I like you better in human form.” she said, chuckling slightly as she recalled the image, the big brown, dog-wolf with incredible blue-greenish eyes. “It’s nicer to be cuddled back than sticking my nose in a dog’s fur.” She pulled him closer by his hand until their noses were almost touching.

“No matter how much you want to you can’t use my powers, and talking about them, if anything goes wrong I can wait till it’s past midnight to use my powers on your brother. Let’s get you to get me the clothes?” He made no movement to shorten their distance though, wanting very much to avert his eyes but still being unable to.

A soft chuckle left her and she reached up her free hand to pat his hair, staying in the same close proximity she had brought them in. Somehow, she was unable to turn her eyes away from him and he seemed to be having the same problem.

“Yeonghae...” she therefore started, blinking slightly, but not fully closing her eyes because she wasn’t able to. “I think this eye contact thing is becoming a bit of a problem. I have no idea why this is happening, but if we try to get there while staring at each other, we might bump into the door,” She frowned. “Cross that might. We WILL bump into the door.”

“I think that’s because I want to kiss you and having you so near is way too tempting…” he confessed using all his willpower to avert his eyes from her and actually managing to do so. When he finally looked away, she almost let out a sigh of relief, turning her head towards the hallway herself. She immediately started walking to her father’s room, because her brother could arrive any minute now, but she never let go of Yeonghae’s hand. It felt as if they were glued together.

He followed along. Wondering what would come from that encounter but having a good feel about it, not exactly related to getting to know her brother, but more for being able to spend more time with her. If anything went wrong with her brother, he could always resort to his powers anyway.

Once they reached the room, she gave him a pair of clean boxers to start with – luckily her father wore those – and then made him try on different pants, shirts and sweaters until he would have a set of fitting clothes. Right as he was trying on another shirt – one that luckily seemed to fit – the doorbell rang and she immediately rushed out of the room to go open the door for her brother. He rolled two heavy bags into the house, putting them down and coming up to greet her. She offered him her hand, but he wasn’t satisfied with that and leaned in to press a kiss on her cheek. She was only barely able to keep her disgusted expression away when he let go again.

“Welcome home, oppa,” she greeted him. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to let you in earlier. I completely forgot about it with everything that happened.”

“Exactly what happened then?” he countered. “You said you were in the hospital?”

Right at that moment, Yeonghae descended the stairs with the first buttons of the shirt open exposing his collarbones, messing up his hair in what he believed was stylish. Yeonghae had never been fond of sweaters solely because being a werewolf he was slightly warmer than normal humans and couldn’t be bothered with cold weather that easily.

Once he reached the first floor he greeted her brother with a ninety-degree bow and a warm smile. “Nice to meet you Meeyon’s brother, I’m Lee Yeonghae. A very new friend of your sister.” Her brother eyed him from top to bottom and she was already cursing him in her mind, hoping he wouldn’t make any stupid comments, right as her brother spoke.

“Exactly what kind of friend are you?” Too late.

“The type that saves her from a rapist, and comes by the next day after his job to check if she’s all right,” Yeonghae spoke calmly still with a smile on his face. “My cousins – also her other saviours or so I say – wanted to come too but it would be too many people and too loud.”

She sighed. “Oppa, it’s my business who I let into the house and who I don’t. Be nice or you can leave again. You have tonight to settle in and start doing your laundry, they’re coming back tomorrow evening, so you’ll have to be gone by then. I suggest you start working,” she then said. “Welcome home, make use of it while you can,” She sent him a not-quite-that-friendly smile and turned away, walking to the stairs. She hoped Yeonghae would know to follow her, because she didn’t feel like spending a moment longer in her brother’s company.

He bowed to her brother once more and then followed her, leaving behind the dumbfounded brother. “I never saw such strong bound between brother and sister before, Kangdae and Sunhi would feel the worst siblings ever.” he joked, slightly amused with her treatment towards her brother.

She couldn’t help smiling over his joke, but that smile soon died away again. “I’m pretty sure Kangdae never stole half of their family’s money and left to spend it on gambling and cigarettes.” she retorted, pushing open the door of her room and stepping in. She walked up to the window, closing the curtains first before turning on the lights. Her room was clean – for once, her bed was nicely made, the couch empty except for a blanket, her desk holding only her computer and some school books and her closets nicely closed. She motioned him to take a seat wherever, closing the door of her room again behind him.

“Why closing the curtains may I know?” He decided not to bring their talk to some topic that was clear she was uncomfortable with. He took a seat in her couch eyeing her room. “Ah so nice having a room to yourself! You and Sunhi are so lucky!”

“Who are you rooming with then?” she asked, sitting down on her desk chair and looking around the room. She knew that if her eyes would cross Yeonghae’s even by accident only, she would once again be unable to look away.

“Chanhyeok. We’re much more alike. Kangdae is rooming with Seungi and Wonshik with Gwangjin,” Yeonghae shook his head. “We had to move once when we tried to room Gwangjin and Kangdae,” he then chuckled leaning his head on the backrest and closing his eyes. He knew that with time the attraction would lower even if he’ll never lose it, she could end up falling for someone else, but not the other way around, she’d be the only one for him till he dies.

When he closed his eyes, she turned to look at him, taking in his features, really looking at him for the first time since they met. And then she moved, getting up from her desk chair and walking over to him. She stopped in front of him, only to reach out a hand and softly touch his cheek. Her fingers wandered over his face, from his cheek to his forehead, over his nose and lips to his chin, then to his other cheek. His face was warm beneath her fingers, a rather intriguing detail. As she let her hand slide down to his neck, she realized that her attraction to him went much deeper than just looks alone.

He reached up a hand to hold hers. He knew her curiosity was understandable so he would let her do whatever she wanted if it meant her getting used to his presence. “Anything you want to know?”

“Who are you?” she blurted out, her eyes jumping from his face to their joined hands, then back to his face. It felt rather awkward all of a sudden to be standing in front of him like that, but she didn’t want to move away either.

“I’m Lee Yeonghae.” he smirked over her question.

“What personality do you have? Anything you like to do except for dancing? What colour do you like best?” she started summing up more specific questions, before suddenly going silent and then adding: “When were you born?”

“I’m calm, gentle, a little bit childish when I want to be, hardworking, I like reading a lot, I like walking around the city at night, I like to fight when the time is right for me. My favourite colour is blue, the blue of the ocean. I was born a hundred years and a bit ago I guess... My actual ID says I am twenty-four.” He waited for her reply.

She swallowed, having expected an age older than hers, but not THAT much older. For a moment she stilled, considering her next question, but then she moved her free hand to touch his face again. “Don’t open your eyes,” she reminded him, even though she was pretty sure he didn’t need to be reminded. Touching him was like touching a rock lying in the sun. He glowed with his body warmth and it was almost scary how much she liked the feeling of his skin against her fingers. Thinking about it more, it simply was scary. With a start, she pulled her hand out of his, backing away from him until she was back at the desk chair, but her eyes never left his face.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, sitting down to keep herself from walking back to him.

“Chanhyeok said you called me a monster, our uncle said you could be a problem we must eliminate, but Chanhyeok defended you saying it was crystal clear what happened between us. Sunhi confirmed his words and uncle ordered me to come and make sure if you ought to be protected as a member of our pack or eliminated like any human that turned out to be a prey.” While saying that, he moved his hands to his eyes.

“Look at me,” she breathed, not realizing that that was completely the opposite of what she had ordered him to do earlier. He did as he was told, but made sure not to look in her eyes.

“Why are you _here_?” she said, putting stress on the last word. “Why are you willing to wait for me, or whatever you were talking about earlier? Why are you listening to me?” She looked at his eyes, a pair of normal brown eyes like any other human and yet still, she could clearly remember those same eyes look a light blueish green.

“We... Our kind... We can only have babies with humans… We fall in love only once in our life. It happens in an instant, our body reacts to the human that supposedly is best fit for us. We attract that human to a certain degree. If we were a few centuries back we wouldn’t be talking, we would be doing something else, making sure a new kid would be born, but to the human the attraction can simply end after some time and I would have to endure seeing you with someone else. It’s part of our curse I think... I am here because I fell for you, because my body and my heart know you are the only one to complete me. Something in the way our spirits sync... I’m here because there’s nowhere else I want to be.”

“You do realize that sounds ... terrifying.” she replied, her eyes still pinned on his face as if waiting for him to look back at her.

“I know... I can always look after you without you knowing... You don’t have to accept me fully... I know you react to me... It’s enough.” To not kill you, he added mentally, averting his eyes from her face. He started to feel that he was forcing her too much. He felt like leaving her house, but having no willpower to do so.

“I don’t want children,” she blurted out again. “They’re noisy and they drool. Can’t you find some other girl who loves you to make babies with? You don’t need to love someone to do that, right?”

“And kill an innocent human after she gives birth? I don’t think so.” His tone became bitter. “We don’t have to have kids... I won’t force that on you...”

“She doesn’t have to be killed if you don’t let her find out what you are,” she replied, just to have something to protest with, because she pretty much agreed with him already. When she lifted one of her hands to look at it, she noticed she was trembling, so she quickly tucked her hand away again. “Could you get us something to drink in the kitchen?” she then asked him, her tone still the same.

“Do you want your normal life back?” he countered looking at his hands.

“Yesterday I had a normal life, today I’m watching my biggest fantasies come alive, tomorrow I will tell you what I think about all this,” she replied, letting her eyes wander back to him. “Please get us something to drink...”

He stood up at that and walked out of the room, wondering where the kitchen was, not saying anything anymore.

Once he was out of the door, her masquerade fell and the first tears made their way down her cheeks. She pressed her trembling hands against her face, closing her eyes and sobbing as silently as possible. After only five sobs, she already controlled herself again, quickly grabbing a tissue from her desk to clean her face with. Since the trembling didn’t stop, she squished her two hands between her legs, closing her eyes and breathing slowly.

There was no way she was going to let Yeonghae realise just how much all of it affected her, yet unknown to her Yeonghae faintly heard the sobs, sighing as he was unsure of what to do. To him it was clear she couldn’t accept what happened though there was no way to make it undone. All he could do was try to force her to believe in another story, and keep secretly looking after her.

He went downstairs with all his senses alert to her brother’s presence and also to the familiar harmony from the kitchen utensils such as the refrigerator. He moved to the sounds, easily finding his way, opening the fridge and inspecting its contents.

There were all kinds of drinks and some food as well, but for the most part it was empty. He had been looking inside for a few moments only when her brother suddenly walked in as well, stopping when he noticed Yeonghae at the fridge.

“Oh, err I didn’t get your name, hyung.” Yeonghae said not averting his eyes and reaching for two colas. Only when he closed the fridge did he look at her brother with a blank expression.

“Yeah I know.” the guy said, not even offering him a smile as he walked past him, opening the fridge again and taking out a bottle of beer for himself. He then walked out again, leaving without another word. It was obvious the guy didn’t appreciate Yeonghae’s presence.

As for Yeonghae, he decided that for nothing in the world would he leave Meeyon alone with her brother. He walked back to her room, paying attention to the sounds coming from it. Meeyon had crawled under the blankets of her bed by then, still pressing her hands close to her chest so they wouldn’t tremble as much. She was staring at the closets standing opposite to the bed, humming along with some song in her head. All of a sudden she sighed and rolled over.

“Stupid,” she muttered to herself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” And then she chuckled, before shaking her head. “Seriously stupid. How can you even be like this? Stupid,” She sighed again then, closing her eyes for a moment. “Mhm, he’s taking long. Would he have found the kitchen?”

At that Yeonghae took in a deep breath and opened the door as if he knew nothing of what she was trying to hide. “Hey, already asleep? I brought a cola, hope it’s ok,” He walked to her after he closed the door and then sat on the edge of her bed as he reached the can to her. “Here,”

Instead of taking the can, she took hold of his wrist, looking up at him, hoping he’d look back this time. He looked at her hand though, saying nothing.

“Yeonghae-ah...” she uttered, moving her hand to take the cola out of his hand and slowly sitting up. She then took the other one too, putting both aside on the blanket, before turning back to him. She took hold of his hands, looking at them and hers and how they suddenly didn’t tremble anymore.

“I’m sorry if I’m acting weird today,” she mumbled, squeezing his left hand softly. “I really don’t know what to think of all this. It’s confusing and... A lot to take in. It also doesn’t really help that I have a death threat hanging above my head,” She chuckled humourlessly over that, before sighing. “You seem like a good kid and I’d love to get to know you, we’ll just have to...” She paused there, staring at their hands and wondering how to say something like that without sounding like the stupidest person ever. In the end, she looked up at him again, trying to catch his gaze.

He looked at her, knowing what she was doing was normal and that he was the one taking from her the normality of her life. She looked back at him, sighing slightly before suddenly leaning in. She moved closer, tilting her head slightly and letting her lips touch his. Instead of pulling away after, she stayed like that, her eyes closed, their lips barely touching, skin to skin. After a while of breathing in his scent and feeling his warmth, she leaned back opening her eyes slowly.

“We’ll just have to get to know each other while dealing with this attraction.” she then whispered, feeling slightly dazed by whatever feeling was rushing through her.

“It’s just for now, in a week or so it won’t be that strong anymore,” He smiled, feeling light after her touch. “Ask Simon what he feels towards Sunhi and you’ll get a glimpse of how much it will decrease for you.”

She wanted to ask more questions, say something cunning like ‘Simon’s had it for just as long as me, no?’ but instead she just squeezed his hand softly and then let go to take a can of coke. She opened it, before passing it to him. She then took her own can, but after looking at it for a while, she put it down again.

“What’s wrong?” He questioned softly.

“What isn’t?” she countered, before realising how hurtful those words were. “Well it’s not wrong, but... Strange.”

“I think you should rest. Just lay down and sleep...” Yeonghae suggested, trying not to mind her words. After all, he knew she was right and he was the monster every human learned to fear, for his kind had been forsaken by the humans a long time ago.

“I don’t want to...” she confessed. “What if I wake up and this turned out to be a dream?”

“Wouldn’t it be better this way?” he questioned softly before he was finally able to close his eyes again. “I’m not going back home tonight, I’ll stay here...because I don’t trust your brother.” He confessed turning around and looking at her window, there was something about the guy that was nagging him. She moved closer then, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her body against his back.

“It wouldn’t be better. No matter how scary it is, it also feels right. Being with you feels right. I’ve never had a boyfriend or someone like that and I never felt like I needed one, but when it’s you it finally feels like everything’s fine now.” she admitted then, closing her eyes and listening to his heartbeat, reassuring herself that if he was a monster, he’d not be sitting there like that. “I trust my brother for not doing anything to me, but I’m not sure about you. Stay here and stay next to me, okay?”

“I will. I certainly won’t do anything to you in this form, nor in my wolf form. It’s harder to control in my other three forms though,” he chuckled, easily taking her hands off him and taking the cans fully out of spill reach. He then forced her to lay down, laying beside her and making sure her back was fully pressed against his chest, his arms firmly wrapped around her middle. “I won’t trust anyone that gets close to you, no matter what you say.” he whispered in her ears right after.

She wrestled free from his grip a little only to turn around and then cuddle close again. It was strange how she could feel so comfortable being so close to him, while with everyone else, there was always a distance, no matter how close the relationship. When she breathed in his smell again, she relaxed in his arms, smiling softly.

“Not even Sam?” she then mumbled back, her tone slightly joking.

“Not even him... Who knows what will happen when your attraction to me gets too weak?” he replied and then without a second thought he started singing a lullaby.

She wanted to laugh, but couldn’t, his voice mesmerizing her. Closing her eyes, she listened to his singing, deciding to just not care about anything for today and see again the next. They ended up sleeping like that in each other’s arms, but the next morning she woke up alone, the shirt she had lent him thrown on her couch. She stayed in bed, staring at it, wondering if his words were lies or if she’d actually see him again.

But she didn’t wonder for too long since her door was opened revealing a shirtless Yeonghae walking to her. “Good morning.” he beamed to her with a smile and walking back to her bed making no ceremony in pulling her back down in his arms and nuzzling his nose in her neck. It was strange how easily she accepted it, how easily she let him pull her in all directions, cuddle her close, touch her. But part of her had already accepted it, she realised, as she nuzzled back, pressing her cheek against his and smiling contentedly.

“I have to go back home... But if it’s ok with you I can come back after lunch with my cousins.” he spoke softly.

“I thought you said you didn’t trust me alone with my brother…” she retorted, not making a move.

“I don’t, but I have to go... I have a report to make. Plus if I go, I can get changes and move in with you.” he joked, knowing that the spirits wouldn’t try anything against her after he spent a whole night with her. At least for the few hours he would be out.

“Fine. I’ll see you at noon then.” she retorted, closing her eyes, planning to sleep on again.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he warned before kissing her neck and then moving away from her. She heard the rustle of clothes and the thud of the pants she had lent him colliding with her couch. She kept her eyes closed like he told her and even though she imagined he would’ve morphed by then, she still didn’t open them, not really wanting to watch him leave. With a sigh, she curled up into a ball, willing herself to go back to sleep.

Yeonghae left without really wanting too. He managed to escape her house through the garden using the same path he had used to come in. He was not in bed when she woke up for that reason, as he had gone to open all the doors to have a fast and safe way out. He strode through the city, running as fast as he could and using the less populated streets. Her house was a far end from his hideout but he managed to get there within a mere half hour.

As soon as his presence was sensed in the garden, all the other members of his pack rushed to him, he morphed back not caring at all about the seven pairs of eyes on him – including a female one.

“It seems everything went well for you to be back home only now,” Kangdae smirked patting his shoulder. “How many adds to the pack will we get from you?” The ruthless warrior from his pack started poking his sides.

“None. She’s not fond of kids.” Yeonghae answered with a blank expression.

“Pay, everybody! Told you guys he would only talk with her!” Seungi beamed and Yeonghae rolled his eyes, knowing plenty well they had made some sort of bet, but he looked astonished when even Sunhi reached some money to Seungi.

“Uncle Soohwan, Meeyon is my companion and therefore I ask for her protection as a member of this pack. She’s confused and scared, but she won’t betray us.” Yeonghae bowed to the older man and Alpha of his pack.

“Very well. Be done as you said,” the man told him with a caring voice and a relieved smile. “From now on it’s our duty to help and protect Meeyon, for she stands as Yeonghae’s companion. Harming her is the same as harming our pack and punishments will be given to those who do it,” his voice sounded then, striking every member of the pack. None of them would go against those words, anyone targeting Meeyon would turn out to be the prey.

Yeonghae smiled and messed up Sunhi’s hair as the girl walked up to him. She was happy his companion had been formally accepted and she was looking forward to the alpha order to be given about Simon as well.

“I wonder when I’ll be able to tell Simon…” Sunhi sighed beside him, gaining a pained smile from Yeonghae. “Meeyon told me he’s a righteous Believer. Take it easy and prepare him well.” The girl looked at him surprised and her thoughts became troubled. “Think this way… Meeyon can help convince him we’re not total monsters.” He assured his younger cousin and she nodded with a bit of a sad smile.

The rest of the morning consisted of selecting some clothes he would leave at Meeyon’s house, taking a long cold bath, having a heartfelt breakfast and packing some ingredients because he decided to go cook lunch for her. He called Chanhyeok and Seungi to come with him, having a hard time to convince Sunhi she could visit her in another opportunity. They were not two blocks away when Hyeok informed him they were being followed – being an irraka and the best tracker from the pack had it’s good points, Yeonghae could only roll his eyes and sigh. At around 11 AM Meeyon’s doorbell went off in a rather childish annoying way.

By then she had gotten out of bed and helped her brother with his laundry – after so many years, he still failed at that. When the doorbell rang in such a manner, she could hear her brother cursing in his room, but paid no attention to it as she went to open the door.

As soon as the door disappeared from between her and the other person she could feel someone hugging her tight. “Yoonie!” Chanhyeok’s voice boomed in her ears, followed by the pissed sound of Yeonghae’s voice.

“Hands off, Hyeok,” and in the next moment another pair of familiar warm arms wrapped around her. “I’m back. Unfortunately with a pack on my tail.” Yeonghae sweetly whispered in her ear.

She smiled, reaching out a hand to pat Chanhyeok’s head while using the other to hug Yeonghae back shortly. She then easily slipped out of both their reach, motioning them to walk into the living room.

“Nice house,” A new voice sounded the moment she turned away and Hyeok closed the door. “Should I count? Five, four, three, two, one.” And the doorbell rang again.

When she turned away from Yeonghae to look at the door again, she found the other guy who had been with them in the mall leaning against the wall next to the door. She eyed him over once, his messy hair, uninterested eyes and random clothes, but then walked up to the door anyway to open it again, not leaving enough space for people to enter, but just looking out to see who it was. “Yes?”

“YO!” Kangdae boomed. “We met again. Very nice to know you, Meeyon! This is Gwangjin and this is my little sis Sunhi, but you already know her. I’m Kangdae by the way. Woah, you have a very nice house! I bet Hae will be more here than back at home. I’ll miss him.” The tall muscular guy from the shoe shop entered her house without ceremony and walked all the way to the living room after he motioned to the other guy she saw at the shoe store and the girl she was already kind of familiar with.

“Sorry. He has no manners,” The guy with messy hair said. “I’m Seungi. Nice to meet you.” He offered after eyeing all his cousins marching to the living room with the exception of Sunhi, who spoke after him.

“Sorry for intruding like this, I really tried to stop my brother but that is impossible most of the time.” She girl offered apologetically.

Meeyon watched them all walking into the living room without a single care. For a moment she just stared, but then something seemed to meddle inside of her. Before she could speak, however, her brother’s displeased voice sounded from the direction they had all went.

“Who are you? What are you all doing here?”

Gwangjin eyed the guy from head to toe before replying. “We came to check on her. Her wellbeing is an important matter to all of us,” he said simply, sinking on the couch and then asking Meeyon if he could watch TV. Kangdae sat beside him while Yeonghae and Chanhyeok vanished to the kitchen, Seungi kept himself where he was while Sunhi eyed the guy with a slightly displeased face.

Meeyon stood in the door opening of the living room, eyeing the whole group of people who had barged in so suddenly and not really getting exactly what was going on. By the time she had recovered some of her sense, her brother was already dragging her into the hallway by her arm to speak to her privately. She stumbled after him, her eyes flashing to his face to try and see if he was very angry or not.

The group seemed not to care much as Sunhi walked to the couch sitting on the arm while Seungi went to the glass door. Unknown to the siblings all of them had tensed up with all their senses focused on them.

“What is this, Yon?” her brother hissed, the moment they were out of audible reach – or so he hopped. She stayed silent, eyeing him in wonder, not sure what he meant. “Who are all these people? Why did you let all of them into our house at once?” he continued then and she frowned.

“I didn’t let them in, they came in themselves.” she retorted, but that obviously wasn’t the best thing to say.

“And you just let them? Do you even know them? Can you trust them? So many strangers in the house is dangerous, you know...” he continued, but she cut in right there.

“Why? What do you think they’ll do? Steal something? Don’t worry there’s nothing to steal; you took everything already.” she bit at him. The next moment his hand struck her cheek and she staggered back a step, eyes wide in shock.

At that Sunhi rushed to the kitchen and all eyes in the living room turned to them. Kangdae’s were the fieriest ones. That very moment Yeonghae stepped out of the kitchen and walked to Meeyon, slipping his arms around her middle and inspecting her cheek. Only after that did he turn to her brother with a subtle anger in his eyes. She’d never know how much he was at the brick of changing and eating her brother alive.

“I asked my cousins to come check on her in smaller groups, but my hyungs didn’t listen. They are just worried about her. Saving her from a rapist left us all very worried. In times like this we need to comfort the victim, not harm her, don’t you think, hyung? I apologize for barging in like this, we’ll keep the volume down and they’ll go after we’ve had lunch. Before you protest; we bought all the ingredients so all food served here today is our treat.”

But his polite words found no ears with her brother and least of all with Meeyon herself. She started to tear up, letting out a sob and another one, but it was obvious she was not crying from pain or hurt. It took her a few moments more before she could pull free from Yeonghae’s arms, sending an enraged look in her brother’s direction.

“With what right do you think you’re hitting me? You hardly have a right to enter this house to begin with so why would you have a say in who enters and who doesn’t? With what sick imagination do you imagine me wanting or needing your help now?” she bit at him through the tears. “Take your stupid laundry, your stupid clothes and your stupid luggage, and get out of this house and my life immediately.”

“What are you s-”

“RIGHT NOW! OUT! YOU CAN BE GLAD IF I WON’T TELL OUR PARENTS YOU STILL COME BY!” she yelled, watching with trembling limbs how her brother stomped up the stairs, only to come back moments later with his bag and his arm full of freshly washed clothes. He didn’t give her another look as he passed by, but when he reached the door he did hesitate for a moment.

“One day you’ll regret sending your family away, little sister,” he spoke, his voice very calm for what was happening. “There are some things you don’t know about me.” After saying that, he left, the door falling closed behind him.

She stared at it, the tears running freely over her cheeks, her hands clenched into fists and her whole body still trembling.

“You can go up stairs. I’ll entertain my cousins. When you feel better, come down again.” Yeonghae spoke softly not trying to pull her to him, nor looking at her. By that time, he already knew she didn’t want to show her weak side to anyone. But she shook her head, wiping her face to clear the tears and turning around then. She immediately moved up to him, wrapping her arms around his middle and hiding away against his broad chest to give herself some more time to recover.

He immediately wrapped his arms around her once more, but said nothing. He just hoped his warmth would calm her down and her presence would easy him. He also hoped she wouldn’t notice his body was slightly warmer and that his hands were trembling.

She clung to him for about half a minute before slowly letting go. After wiping her face once more and making sure in the hallway mirror that she didn’t look as awful as she felt, she put on a smile again and walked back into the living room.

“Sorry about that. You can watch TV if you want, Gwangjin-ssi, and you’re all very welcome here. I’m sorry about my brother, he’s a dickhead somet- All the time, really.” she then said, sending them a grin.

They all eyed her for a split second and then Gwangjin turned the TV on, whereas Seungi advised Yeonghae to go back to the kitchen because Sunhi wanted to help Chanhyeok while he was gone. That made Yeonghae rush to the kitchen without a second thought.

Despite the fact that the two people she knew best from the whole group were making lunch in the kitchen and the ones with her in the living room kind of freaked her out, Meeyon still managed to have some kind of fun watching TV with them as they waited for the food to be ready. All in all they were pretty nice people and if she stopped thinking about the fact they were all werewolves, treating them like any other group of people was easy.

When lunch was ready, they gathered around the table and dug in. The food was great and she complimented both Chanhyeok and Yeonghae for it. The talk at the table was animated as well, with everyone sharing stories. Meeyon found out about one more pack member called Wonshik who wasn’t around because he was looking after Seungi, Gwangjin and Kangdae’s kids, who were still too young werewolves to be left alone. The idea of the three already having kids was slightly disturbing, but in the end she decided not to mention anything about it.

By the time all the food was gone, a few hours had passed already and Meeyon found herself remembering her parents would be home soon. She didn’t mention it, however, since her father had always been complaining she never asked many friends to stay over aside from Simon. So when the doorbell rang while she was clearing the table somewhere around three in the afternoon, she told Yeonghae to go open up.

Yeonghae did as he was told and skipped to the door, opening it with what he expected to be his best and inoffensive smile. In front of him were two adults with their luggage in hand giving him surprised looks.

“Uhm, hello, young man,” the woman said as she was standing closest to him. “Is Meeyon home?”

He nodded stepping aside to let them in. “She’s clearing the table and asked me to come open the door. My name is Lee Yeonghae.” he bowed to them after saying that.

Both people did go in, but kept looking at him in wonder. “Are you a friend of Meeyon’s?” the woman then questioned again, tone still nothing but friendly.

“I think we can say that. Yes.”

At that Sunhi walked closer and clung at his arm. “Yeonghae, Kangdae oppa challenged Gwangjin oppa to arm-wrestle, where is Seungi oppa?! Chanhyeok and I can’t stop them!” she cried eyeing then the two ‘older people’ and immediately bowing to them. “Oh my! I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the doorbell. I’m Kim Sunhi, sorry for intruding your house while you were away.”

The woman turned to look at Sunhi in surprise as she entered. “Kangdae? Gwangjin? Seungi? Chanhyeok?” she echoed, before turning to look at her husband. After exchanging some glances, she turned back to Yeonghae.

“Excuse me.. Yeonghae is it? Where is our daughter exactly?” she then asked.

He smiled a boyish apologetic smile before replying “In the kitchen.” he then turned to Sunhi. “Seungi hyung said he needed the restroom, I think he is still there. Hurry.” The girl nodded and dashed to the first floor restroom.

Not long after Chanhyeok entered the living room from the kitchen and sat on the couch apparently exhausted. Once he sank down, Seungi crossed the room with Sunhi right after him and the next thing they heard was a loud. “No arm-wrestling here! This is not our house.” before the two guys walked back into the living room with angry faces, with Meeyon following them. She was pretty shocked about Seungi’s sudden shouting, but once he told her he’d do the rest of the cleaning, she immediately walked on to the hallway to go greet her parents.

“Hi mum, hi dad. I see you met my friends already,” she greeted them with a smile, walking up to give her mother a hug and then giving her dad a kiss on his cheek. “Was the trip nice? Let Yeonghae help you with that bag.” she then continued, pushing the huge bag her mother had been carrying in Yeonghae’s direction.

“The trip was nice, yes. I see you’ve enjoyed your weekend too...” her mother replied and she nodded with a smile.

“Did Sam call you guys yet?” she asked, and when the reply was negative she continued: “After the graduation ball I was walking home when some rapist pulled me into an alley. Luckily Yeonghae and Chanhyeok got to me in time and nothing bad happened. Sam was just totally freaked out about it, so I thought he’d have called you or something. I’m glad I could tell you first and save you all the worrying.”

“Correct that, basically everybody in the living room and kitchen had some kind of action in that.” Yeonghae corrected, asking her dad for the luggage he was carrying right after, to take them up stairs.

“Well yeah… I guess... Anyway I passed out and they brought me to the hospital. They’re real nice people, Sam agrees with that at least.” she continued, helping her parents put the luggage in their room. “We’ll catch up later, okay?” she then said. “Need to go take care of my guests, you know... Kick them out,” She grinned at her parents before going downstairs and walking straight into the living room. “Hey you bunch of overactive kiddos, time to go home.”

What followed to her statement was a bunch of ‘aaw’ and ‘can we come again?’ before a strident Seungi walked back into the living room. “I think Meeyon still needs rest so you guys should let her rest. She has to welcome her parents back home too. We’ll have many opportunities to talk to her, she can even come visit us if she wants. And we have business to do too. So you heard her: out.” It was always amazing how Seungi hardly talked but when he did it was always a big stream of words. Gwangjin asked for a high five, Kangdae messed her hair, Chanhyeok dared another hug, Sunhi asked to shake hands, Seungi simply bowed to her and all of them left, leaving Yeonghae behind. But not after Seungi reminded him he could not stay much longer.

Meeyon watched them all go, smiling, giving Gwangjin a high five, kicking Kangdae for messing up her hair, cuddling Chanhyeok back, shaking hands with Sunhi and giving a bow back to Seungi. When the door closed after the last one, she looked at it a moment longer, before turning around and immediately walking up to Yeonghae with open arms, obviously asking for a hug. He happily hugged her back. “I’m happy you guys got along well, you get used to them with time... humn... I don’t want to go...” he suddenly whined.

She smiled. “I don’t want you to go either. Can’t you just stay?” she then replied, only barely keeping herself from whining as well.

He moved his mouth over to her ear. “I need to hunt. Tonight I can’t stay,” he whispered softly.

“Tonight is still far away, it’s only five now,” she mumbled back, moving a little so she could rest her head in the nape of his neck.

“You have to welcome your parents. But if you really want, I can stay if they don’t mind. As soon as the sun sets I’ll have to go.” He pulled her even closer – if it was possible – and tried his best to refrain from asking for a kiss.

She hummed something, closing her eyes and just standing like that, her arms wrapped around him, a content smile on her face. It didn’t take long for her parents to come back down, and when they did, she opened her eyes again, lifting her face slowly, almost lazily.

“I see your new friend already knows you, huh?” her mother said with an amused tone, making a grin appear on her face.

“Yeah, he does.” she agreed, putting her head down again, but now looking at her parents. “So what was the sea like?” she questioned them.

“Water-y.” her father noted.

“Salty.” her mother added. She chuckled.

“Not too interesting I take it?” she then summed it up and both her parents nodded.

“We’ll get something to eat now. Will you be home later too?” her mother then changed the subject. She nodded.

“I should be home the rest of the day and if I leave, I’ll text you,” she told them. That was enough for her parents, so they left the house again to grab a bite somewhere. Soon the hallway was filled with silence and she turned her head again, returning to her earlier position as she closed her eyes once more.

Yeonghae smiled over the freedom Meeyon had with her family, without a second warning he pulled her up bridal style and walked to the couch, sinking down on it and cuddling her there. He had a few things he wanted to ask but he didn’t want to ruin that moment of silence, it felt just too good to him.

They pretty much stayed there for the rest of the evening, just cuddling, hardly speaking. When her parents came home, she finally let him go, deciding she should spend some time with them and would have lots of time during her holidays to spend on Yeonghae. So she hugged him once more as goodbye and then saw him off.


	3. Waxing Crescent

The next day, Yeonghae came back as soon as he was free. They spent most of the time in quite the same way as the previous evening, cuddling a lot mostly and getting food when they were hungry. It was by that evening, however, that Meeyon slowly started to question herself again. When she sent Yeonghae off later that day, she watched him go with mixed feelings, and over the course of the evening, they only became worse.

Who was he? What was he suddenly doing in her life? Why was she letting him take over her life? What part of her agreed with the fact that he was her so-called soul mate? Where was her choice in all this? Where was her free will, her beliefs, her convictions? Had she no say in all this? Was she just a lifeless puppet, meant to follow Yeonghae around and agree with whatever he told her?

The feeling scared her, her defence mechanisms immediately kicking in, making her feel anger towards him. She let him in the next day, but there was no clinging like the last few days, and as the week passed, so did her attraction to him – or at least that’s how she made it seem. It came to a point where he of course noticed her cold attitude and came less and less, until the only times she saw him, he was outside of her house, merely checking up on her from a distance.

After another two weeks passed, she didn’t even look for him anymore, but completely ignored his presence, despite the longing she still felt for him. She was too scared of giving in to that foreign feeling, too afraid that once she let herself be pulled into the whirlwind of his life, she’d never be able to stand on her own two feet again, and if there was anything she was afraid of, it was of becoming too dependent on him, only to have him ripped away from her then. So she chose to push him away, because it soothed her fear.

Meanwhile Simon and Sunhi seemed to be getting along well together but there were still no signs of the girl letting off any of the truth behind her family. In fact sometimes it seemed she would never tell Simon what she really was. Chanhyeok and Kangdae were the most worried about her, ever since Yeonghae broke the news Simon was a very devoted Believer.

The worst scenario for the couple was the night Simon’s mother invited the girl to have dinner in their house. His parents wanted their only son to marry and have a healthy family with a Believer girl, so when Sunhi stated she had no religious inclinations, the opposition was clear. Simon didn’t want to go against his parents during the dinner but the following day he did question his girlfriend if she could convert herself.

That was the point Sunhi stopped calling him and stopped answering his calls. It was about a week after their ‘break up’, roughly a month after Meeyon found out the truth about Yeonghae and his family, that something rather unexpected occurred. Soohwan had been trying to expand the werewolf territory, what was earning him animosity with the neighbouring vampire territory. He halted all expansion activities when he received a formal letter from the one vampire coven he actually trusted. They had asked assistance in dealing with a rather huge group of spirits that were endangering their food supply. News was exchanged and decisions were made.

So the next night, two vampires from Daroll’s coven showed up in their hideout. From the pack members missing at that particular time were Yeonghae, Chanhyeok and Seungi, who had already received the alpha order to follow whoever came from Daroll’s territory and fight alongside them.

Since Chanhyeok and Seungi would be most likely together, the two vampires decided to go search for them after they were informed Yeonghae would be checking on his human companion. The two vampires divided themselves and that’s why that particular night, while her parents were out having dinner, Meeyon heard some rustle noises coming from her garden again.

She frowned, thinking it might be Yeonghae again wanting to check on her. It started to get particularly annoying to be watched by him every day and even though she could somehow understand his concern, it didn’t really make her feel any better. So with the idea to tell him to get the hell out of her garden and leave her alone, she walked down to the living room, opening the door just like she had done the first day and peering out into the darkness, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

But other than spotting the familiar brown fur and blue sparkly eyes she saw some lanky and tall guy. His skin was deadly white and contrasted a lot with his dark brown wavy hair. Upon seeing her, the guy smirked and walked in her direction with inhuman speed, in a split second he was one feet away from her.

“Goodnight, Yeonghae’s companion.” He breathed and Meeyon could perfectly see the elongated canines and the deep red line around the other’s pupils.

Immediately she stiffened, staring at the guy, unable to move her body, but she tore her eyes away from him to look at Yeonghae, her head sadly not moving along.

“Could you have your supernatural gatherings somewhere else than my garden?” she questioned, her tone obviously annoyed. “My parents might be coming back soon and I also wouldn’t like to have the neighbours looking out to see weird people creeping in my garden.”

“My apologies, it’s just your blood smells really good. I’m looking for Yeonghae, but seem he’s not here. His pet has quite the will.” He spoke softly distancing himself a bit only to turn around and see Yeonghae in his urhan form staring dangerously at him. “Oh there you are, Hae. I _came to pick you up._ ” The vampire stated the indirect alpha order, the smirk never leaving his face. Yeonghae relaxed in his stance and glanced at Meeyon.

“I would appreciate not being called a pet. I am as much Yeonghae’s as you are mine. Goodnight both of you. Yeonghae, please be so kind as to not show up here again. People are starting to ask if we got a dog and now my parents are asking me if I know anything. If you can’t even be stealthy, just stay away.” she bit at them, giving Yeonghae a short annoyed look to make sure her point got through.

“Don’t worry. He may never show up again. Such a heartless lover you got, Hae, I was going to let you have a proper goodbye but seems it won’t be necessary,” The guy waved and vanished, Yeonghae turned around and jumped over the wall, not looking back at her. She shoved the door closed, then walked back up to her room, where she sat down behind her desk again. It was when she was there that the reality of having actually sent Yeonghae away hit her and already her eyes filled with tears again, but she tried hard not to actually cry.

It had been four days with so signs of Yeonghae when a very much depressed Simon knocked on her door. She opened the door for him and, upon seeing his situation, immediately pulled him inside and into a hug. As she cuddled him close, she kicked the door closed with her foot, before asking him what was wrong.

“I’m such an idiot... Sunhi... She broke up with me,” he confessed, hugging her back.

“What? When? Why?” she questioned, completely oblivious to this news, pulling him along with her to the living room so he could sit down. “Why does that make you an idiot?”

“My parents asked her to have dinner with them... She told us she had no religious inclinations and my parents said they couldn’t accept her. I asked her if she would convert for me and now she’s ignoring me. She didn’t even properly break up with me... I love her, Meeyon, but I ended up hurting and chasing her away. I’m an idiot, right?” he rambled, resting his head on the couch and staring at the ceiling.

She rolled her eyes, feeling ready to strangle the girl for being so inconsiderate. However, looking at Simon’s current state she also realized that she had probably done the exact same thing to Yeonghae, only for no reason at all. What did that weird guy say again just a week ago? ‘You might never see him again’? He had indeed not shown up anymore. Would he be alright? But it was not the time to think about Yeonghae.

“Sam, think about it for a moment. Do you mind that she has no real religious beliefs?” she therefore questioned, stroking through her friend’s hair to make him relax more.

He shook his head. “But you know my parents… They even said they’d rather see me with you, whom they know for a long time than some girl that appeared out of nowhere.” He sighed deeply and then turned to her with hopeful eyes. “Are you two friends?” he suddenly questioned.

“Friends is a big word. I guess I’m more friends with Chanhyeok than with Sunhi,” she confessed, not stopping her stroking. “The question you need to ask yourself, Sam, is whether you want to make your parents happy or yourself. You won’t run into someone like Sunhi again. Sure there will be others, but it’ll never be the same again...”

“Please help me, Yoonie, whoever you’re friends with, help me reach her. She won’t answer me no matter how many times I call or how many texts I send her. Can you call their house? Ask to talk with her or something, ask your boyfriend about her? Please?” Simon tried his best puppy eyes on her, but she wasn’t affected.

“Boyfriend?” she countered instead, her voice laced with surprise. “Which boyfriend?”

“Aren’t you dating her cousin? A few weeks ago you seemed so in love...” Simon raised an eyebrow at her. “Don’t tell me he was just flirting with you?!”

“In love? Did I?” she countered, still seeming surprised about that. “Yeonghae’s nice to cuddle, but I wouldn’t call myself in love...” She cocked her head to the side a little. “I can try calling Chanhyeok if you really want me to, but I don’t know if he’s around.”

“Why do you say that?” Simon questioned eyeing her weirdly. To him it seemed like Meeyon and Yeonghae had something like what he felt for Sunhi, and what he had always thought she felt for the other guy.

“I just… Never really thought about that. You know me, Sam. Me and guys is like cats and dogs. They might get along or be friends every now and then, but that’s about it,” she hummed. “Anyway, this conversation is not about me. Should I call or not?”

“I meant why you said Chanhyeok dude wouldn’t be around...” Simon countered once again raising an eyebrow at her, but making no further question about the Yeonghae-thingy. He knew after all, what Meeyon was like, hence why he had been her only long time male friend.

“I mean around the house. He might be out or whatever. I don’t know, perhaps he got a job. Anyway, I’ll call.” she said, poking his side and getting up to grab the phone. It didn’t take her long to jam in their house phone number, calmly waiting for it to connect.

“Han, Kim and Lee residence.” Sunhi’s voice sounded at the other side of the line.

“Hey, it’s me, Meeyon.” she replied, hoping that the events of the past month wouldn’t have made their relationship go sour.

“Oh, hey Meeyon... Do you finally want to know about Hae?” the girl questioned her voice sounding a little relived.

“Actually I was wondering if I can mention the name of a certain male friend of mine or if you will hang up on me too then.” she replied, putting just the right amount of fun in her voice so that it wouldn’t be taken too seriously. She moved out of the living room as she talked, not really fond of having people listen in on her conversations.

There was silence at the other side of the line for a moment, but then Sunhi sighed. “Do you know what it means for one of us to fall in love, Meeyon-ssi?”

“Yeonghae explained a little, yes, but I’m pretty sure that I can’t understand what it’s like for you, no matter how much explaining is done to me.” she retorted.

“Death. That’s what it means,” the girl countered. “Simon doesn’t know what I am. He may be hurting now but once the attraction wears off enough, he’ll fall in love with someone else. I don’t want Simon to be involved and... I’d ask you to forget about us too. Just live your life.”

“Honeybee..” Meeyon countered, not exactly sure why she suddenly felt comfortable enough to talk informally with Sunhi. “Simon does not simply ‘forget about you’ and ‘fall in love with someone else.’ He will be miserable about this for the next five years for sure, especially since you just randomly stopped calling. Why are you taking his choices away from him? I was forced into this, now you’re forcing him to stay out of it? Don’t we have a free will?”

She had meanwhile walked up the stairs and into her room, which made her look right at the shirt of her father that Yeonghae had worn a few times when visiting. She kept it in her room without anyone knowing, just to have something reminding her of him.

“It may seem to you that human lives are short and loving someone is but a small, ignorable thing, but to us, our life is long and if we really love someone, we can also carry it along our whole life.” She was surprised at her own words, but didn’t let it show as she continued.

“Please call him.. Give him a decent explanation which he can understand too for why you’re leaving him, or give him a chance to prove worthy of you. Dropping him like this is the way to make him miserable for the rest of his life. You have such a short time together, why not spend it in his presence instead of avoiding him because you’re insecure?”

“You were forced into our world, true. If I am lucky, I’ll live for about another 400 years of longing for Simon. Do you really want me to put Simon in what you’ve been through? I am sure you can help him get over me, like you got over Yeonghae. I mean I never knew of an attraction to wear off as fast as yours did. Sometimes I wished we could have kids among ourselves and leave you humans completely out of our mess. I don’t want to ask Simon how he wants to die. But that’s ok, if you say it’s better, then I’ll give him a proper break up. I’d like you to not call this number anymore. We’ll let you know if Yeonghae comes back alive or not. Now if you’ll excuse me it’s my turn to train the pups.” Sunhi spoke softly, but Meeyon could hear the sadness in her voice. The next moment the female werewolf had hung up.

It took all of her willpower to keep herself from throwing the phone through the room and instead she channelled it on jamming in the number again, deciding she’d call until someone would pick up to listen to her again. This was so not happening, really not. The next time someone answered the phone, it was a totally foreign voice to her. “Han, Kim and Lee residence, if you’re looking for Sunhi she’s busy now.”

“I know she’s busy, she kindly informed me of that.” she bit at the unknown person, but then controlled herself, took a deep breath and continued on a much politer tone: “I’m sorry to be bothering – again – but I feel like I have created a lot of misunderstandings. I don’t really know who I’m talking to right now, so I’ll keep it short. When Yeonghae gets back, can you please ask him to come talk to me? If he doesn’t...” She fell silent, staring at her wall, wondering what she would do if he didn’t come back alive. The thought was so painful she couldn’t finish her sentence “Just ask him, please? And could you ask Sunhi to call me once she’s free again, I would really appreciate it. There’s some things I’d like to apologise for.”

“By any chance, this is Meeyon? I’m Wonshik. I’ll pass him your message, I’m not sure when he would be back and Sunhi....” There was an abrupt pause at the other line and then she heard his muffled voice. ‘Chanhyeok what are you doing here?! Where is Yeonghae and Seungi?’ After a short moment, she could hardly hear Chanhuk’s reply. “Much... silver daggers….. Hae’s hurt…..his moon….. Kangdae and Gwangjin.’ Only after Chanhyeok’s words stopped did Wonshik’s voice sounded again.

“I’m sorry, Meeyon-ssi, but I have to hang up. Once Hae is back I’ll give him your message. I’m sure you understand how crucial this moment is. The last time we faced this huge a fight we were mere pups. I’m sure he’ll be back to you soon.” Wonshik sounded assured; he didn’t know Yeonghae felt there was no need for him to be back. Differently from Sunhi he did wait for Meeyon to say something before really hanging up.

“Thank you, Wonshik-ssi. I hope everyone is fine – even that tall supernatural red-eyed dude that showed up here a while ago. I’ll hang up now, goodbye.” she replied, hanging up so he could focus on more pressing matters. She didn’t like the worrisome feeling that took over the moment she had heard Chanhyeok saying Yeonghae was hurt. Feeling closer to tears than to laughter, she quickly rushed back down again, hoping Simon would not ask too many questions if she randomly pounced on him and never let go again. But as soon as she stepped back in her living room, to her surprise, Simon was smiling widely looking at his phone.

“What’s up?” she asked, managing to sound as if nothing was up with her, swallowing away the bad feeling.

“Sunhi texted me! She said she’s facing some family problems but that as soon as it’s solved she’ll get in touch because she has something important to tell me! Thank you, Meeyon, seems your call helped!” He pulled his friend to him, lost in his childish joy.

She felt sadness overtake her and even though she hugged Simon back, it was not with the same happiness he felt. “I got her to agree on talking with you, but I don’t know what she’ll tell you, Simon. It might be bad as well as good, don’t get your hopes up too much.” she warned him in a soft voice, feeling bad for killing his joy, but at the same time not wanting him to get disappointed so gravely again.

He pulled her away to look at her finally seeing her sad expression. “What’s wrong? Do you know what is this family problem they’re facing?”

She gave a lame excuse of a smile, considering for a moment to lie, but then realising she couldn’t. Not to Simon. “I do, but it’s not for me to talk about it,” she replied, before sighing. “It’s not that, though. You just got me thinking about Yeonghae and... I...” She fell silent again, staring at Simon’s chest, really wondering if he was fine now. The only people she could really talk to about him were all friends of his and not really of her. It felt like being isolated in a world filled with blind people and she was the only one seeing. How did you talk to someone about things they didn’t know?

“Yeonghae... did you two have a fight as well?” He questioned feeling confused but as soon as he finished his question his mobile vibrated. It was his mother summoning him back home. He sent her a message back saying Meeyon was not feeling well and he would stay with her a little.

“We don’t fight. I just say stupid things and he listens to me,” she retorted, swallowing again. She nodded at his phone. “Is it your mom? You have to go right? You should go. I think I need some time on my own.”

“Are you sure?” He questioned worriedly.

“Yeah, I am. I’ll be fine, you know me,” she retorted. “I hope Sunhi will contact you soon with some happy news. Don’t hesitate to call me, you know I’m available on my phone, even though I’ll be looking at places to stay in the major cities starting tomorrow.”

He sighed nodding at her. “Don’t think too much, let’s pray for both our problems in love to be solved.” He pulled her into another hug and hesitantly turned to leave. She tried something then, catching hold of his hand before he was fully turned away and leaning in to press a quick kiss on his cheek. When she sank back down, she sent him a smile, trying to decide whether that had been really bad or still fine.

“If all else fails and we’re both still single when we’re thirty, we still have a marriage promise open, remember?” she then joked, seeing him off at the door.

“Ok, back up fiancé.” He smiled back at her also taking the liberty to give her a kiss on the cheek. As he turned and left, Meeyon spotted two ‘too big to be dogs’ at the other side of the road looking at her. The next moment though, they turned around and left, one she knew was Chanhyeok the other, she could guess, was Kangdae.

She stayed in the doorpost longer than needed, long after Simon disappeared from sight, long after the fake smile had faded from her face. She stared outside, stared at the sky slowly going dark and the sun disappearing behind human made buildings. It was only when her mother came home from work that she started moving again, dutifully greeting her with a hug and helping with unpacking the bags. But once that was done, she excused herself, put on a jacket and left the house.

She needed time for herself. Time for her mind. She actually needed someone to talk to, but since there was no one, she’d have to do with time to think. Walking along the river sounded like a good plan. Basically the only plan she had.

While she was walking she felt someone following her. It was a feeling she had grown used to, but still not one she felt comfortable with. So when she glanced back, expecting to either see nothing or catch a glimpse of a brown fur, she certainly did not expect to see a young man actually following her. She paused in her steps, turning more fully to observe this young man. He was not someone she knew, as far as she could remember. A rather tall guy, with a friendly looking smile and a cap on his head.

But then she noticed his deadly pale skin as he walked closer. He stopped right in front of her. “For someone that knows about us, you’re brave to walk alone at night. Yeonghae hyung asked me to look after you. Usually your days are quite boring but today it was heart-breaking. I’m offering ears if you want. I already fed today so no worries.” He looked up at her and she could see the red line in his pupils.

“I can’t talk to my best friend, why do you think you’d be any better listening material?” she countered, the reddish pupils still making her slightly insecure, despite having seen them before. She had seen way too many unusual things before. With a short nod of her head, she turned away from him, continuing her walk. Out of nowhere she started softly singing a children’s song that had been buried in the depths of her memory, more concentrating on having something to do than on the words. “Life is a hall with door one two three, who will have to pick if it’s not me, on the right it’s closed on the left it’s gone, go straight ahead for a hundred won.”

The guy stopped walking and just watched her go ahead. “My name is Henry. While Yeonghae hyung is not around, I will be, though most of the time only at night. If you need ears just call my name. I know things you certainly don’t, like where Yeonghae hyung is.”

She turned around at that, peering into the reddish eyes, which, from this distance, seemed normal. “Is he injured badly?”

The boy walked closer and only stopped when he was right beside her. “Our territory was invaded by spirits and they were taking humans. We called for help since the spirits managed quite well to hide. We didn’t expect them to have silver daggers. He got injured in his gauru form, or his half human and half wolf form, and injuries caused by silver take longer to heal, especially if he’s out of essence, the energy to perform his especial abilities. We tracked the hideout and most probably the full moon warriors will be able to deal with them and end this fight... If not, Yeonghae hyung will have to fight again even when injured.” the Vampire explained with a pained expression. “If you knew he was going to engage in a battle like this... Would you have sent him off like you did?”

“Of... course not.” she retorted, voice strained with worries that were none but her own and regrets carved at the edge of her memories. “I might.” she then reconsidered, smiling a sad smile over things this vampire would never know about. “Sometimes we tend to be inconsiderate and selfish.”

“I think it’s in the human nature. I want to ask you to forgive my Younghyun hyung. Yeonghae is a good friend of his or so I say... Yeonghae teased Younghyun a lot when he fell in love some forty years ago. Younghyun has been giving his blood to the girl so she’s not aging and he can keep feeding on her. He only feeds on her. Yeonghae called her a pet that time, that’s why hyung was picking on you. I think Yeonghae hyung has always been jealous of Younghyun.” Henry sighed walking closer to the river.

She followed him with her eyes, looking at his back for a while until she turned away again.

“I need time to think. Thank you for looking after me, Henry-ssi.” she then spoke, starting to walk once more. She didn’t look back anymore this time, just walked and walked, until her feet got tired of walking and then she walked some more. It was only when she realised she had almost reached the big bridge over the river that she decided it was time to go back home. So she turned around and walked back. Limitless steps, walking until her feet, legs, back and brain went numb and all she could think about was right foot in front of the left one, left foot in front of the right one and just keep going.

When she reached her house again, she finally came to a halt, looking up to see if Henry was still around. Apparently he was not following her anymore, but then again what did she really know about vampires?

She walked the last end to her house then, entering with a short greeting to whoever was listening and then climbing the seemingly infinite amount of stairs up to her bedroom. Once she reached her bed, she dropped down on it in exhaustion, too tired to bother with any washing or changing. She was carried off to dreamland not too long after, dreams filled with brown fur and light blue eyes.

When she woke up the next day it was with a severe headache. She took a shower to start the day and then began her search for nice places to live at. In the following days she travelled from one part of the country to the other, visiting cities, looking at apartments, trying to find a place that would be fit for her. She didn’t talk to anyone but the people she had to talk to, to arrange the visits, didn’t pick up any calls, didn’t eat much or drink much. She lived and moved, but everything else was at a strict minimum. For the first time in her life, her headphones seemed to be glued to her head as she had her MP3 with her at all times.

Her zombie life lasted for about six days, until one morning she was home alone and the doorbell rang. She had no other choice but to go open up, coming face to face with a – pale, but nonetheless – very much alive Yeonghae. For the first few moments she just stood there, too surprised to remember what speaking was like.

He didn’t say anything either, just looked at her with a blank expression. He didn’t know what to do, and thinking back to his fight he had been careless because he was unsure about her, if she wanted him back or not.

“Come in.” she finally said, listening to her own surprisingly stable and sure voice through the music still seeping into her ears from the headphones.

He walked slowly and slipped to the living room, taking a seat and resting his head against the backrest to stare at the ceiling, something he grew used to do since she was not comfortable with their eye contact when the attraction was the strongest. He still didn’t utter a word.

She closed the door behind him, following him into the living room while softly humming along with the music playing. She watched him sit down from the living room entrance, followed his eyes up to the ceiling, before looking at him again. “How are your injuries?” she then asked, her voice still as steady as before.

“Healing very slowly… It’s still painful.” he replied shortly because most of the damage was in his ribs and he almost had his lungs perforated. “By the new moon…I’ll be in perfect shape… again.” he shortly assured next.

“When is it?” she countered, her words falling right during the silence in between two songs. What started playing next was a melody she knew all too well that soothed her thumping heart.

“In six to eight days... It’s my moon starting again... So during the next three days... I’ll heal faster.” He spoke slowly and breaking his phrases to breath the pain away. She nodded, as if she understood anything of what he was saying.

“You want something to drink?” she then asked, wondering how to help him since she couldn’t speed up the changing of the moon for him. Her heart ached because of it.

“A glass of water... would be good.” he replied closing his eyes. “Younghyun... leave us alone.” he breathed suddenly and then he smiled softly.

She glanced around when he said that, but of course didn’t see anyone, so she simply set for the kitchen, coming back not much later with a glass of water, which she reached out to Yeonghae, still not sitting down herself.

“Thank you,” he took the glass and drank all of its content, Wonshik did order him to drink much water, “Anything... you want to know?” he questioned eyeing the empty glass in his hands.

She shook her head lightly, not noticeable for anyone not looking intently at her. She watched him, though, tracing the lines on his face with her eyes, feeling her heart ache more at how pale he really was. After a while, she suddenly took the headphones of her own head, sliding them over his ears, the volume at the lowest like she listened to them. They drowned out all other sounds from the outside world.

He rejected the headphones though. “Don’t want...” he still spoke softly. “I am alive... I’ll be more cautious... if you have anything... to say... just say so...” he urged still not looking at her.

“Listen to the song. Please...” she said, her voice soft, some of her confident outer layer stripped away now that the headphones were gone. He pulled the headphone back with a sigh, but somehow he couldn’t concentrate on it, the words didn’t reach him, nor the melody, the external world was too loud for him.

As he ‘listened’ to the music, she sat down on the arm seat of the couch, her feet standing on the actual seat, right next to his leg. She looked at him like that, reaching out a hand to close his eyes.

“Please keep your eyes closed,” she then said. “I know you can hear me, but just pretend you can’t. Pretend you’re listening to the music. Pretend you don’t know I’m here. It makes this easier for me.” Looking at him a moment longer, her hand still lingering over his eyes, she found herself almost losing confidence, but then she got up again, tearing her eyes – and hand – away from him and walking more to the middle of the living room.

“I’m sorry,” she then started, putting her body in motion, walking five steps to one side of the room, before turning and taking ten steps back. She kept walking back and forth like that as she continued her explanation. “I don’t know how much I hurt you, but if I look at Simon, it must be a lot. I’m sorry about that. I don’t want to see you hurt and I certainly don’t want to be the one causing that pain. Sunhi told me she has never seen attraction wear off so fast. I think she felt bad for you... Maybe she was even a little angry at me... But she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know how hard this is for me.”

She glanced over at Yeonghae for a moment, verifying his eyes were still closed, before letting her gaze slip to the ground again and continuing her relay. “I’m just so scared. I got overwhelmed with this huge need to be close to you, hold you, to do other things I’ve never felt any need for in the past. I was always fine on my own, even liked being alone every now and then, but then you came along and suddenly being alone was so terrifying. But what was more terrifying was how easily I gave into the feeling, gave in to you.” She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts so she would not start throwing things on a big heap of crap.

“I got scared. Scared of how dependent I felt. I pushed you away trying to defend myself from all of this, but all I really wanted was to keep you close – closer than anyone else. I wanted you to grab hold of me, give me a good shake and tell me not to be so silly and just get over it. But you didn’t. You left as if I had the right to act so cold towards you when all you’ve ever done was be considerate of me,” She smiled a bitter smile. “And then Simon showed up and I talked to Sunhi on the phone and I got to think. A whole lot. I realised that my life’s short indeed, but if I want to give all of it to you, then what does it even matter? I know you won’t purposely hurt me, I know you’d give anything for me, so why would I not do the same for you?”

Her eyes flashed from the ground, to the lower part of the couch, to the window and back to the ground, all the time still avoiding looking at Yeonghae. “Seeing Simon so messed up, I realised I didn’t want to be like that, but I also realised that I already was, just not showing it that way. It’s just hard to be the only one to know about this. I needed people to talk to, but I have no one I can tell now. There’s only your friends, but they’re your friends, not mine. I felt completely alone for this past month. And then I realised I’m stupid, that I don’t have to. Because there is you and even if I may not be able to tell you everything, you’ll still be there when I need you. So I decided that being dependent is fine. I can still pay for my own food, still take care of my own life, I just don’t want to let you out of my sight anymore.”

A small smile pulled up the corners of her lips slightly, her nervous pacing coming to a stop as she stared out the window. “I found a nice apartment in the outer blocks of Sosari. It’s on the first floor. There’s a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a small living room. It has a little balcony, big enough to sit on and watch the stars and the moon at night. There’s also one more room in case one of your friends would like to crash over once...” She swallowed, slowly turning around to face him, her eyes insecurely searching for his. “That is, of course, if your offer of moving in with me still stands.”

He sighed again, taking the headphone off, he opened his eyes and looked back at the ceiling “I love you... but my life... is not as simple... as I wanted it to be... I forced my reality... on you... you have the right... to be cold to me... I can’t... move in with you.”

She walked over to the couch again, sitting down on the armrest next to him again. She let her head rest against the back of the couch, close to his, taking the headphones from him with her free hand and hanging them around her own neck.

“I figured perhaps you might not be able to. There’s also an apartment about two blocks away in the direction of your family’s house, with pretty much the same inside, just no spare bedroom. It’s on about fifteen minutes walking distance from the university I entered and the door would be open for you at any time.” she explained in a not too loud voice. She didn’t touch him, afraid it would hurt him even more, since he had been having troubles talking already.

“That would be... better... inside our territory... is much better...” he smiled for the first time, also looking at her. She smiled back, carefully lifting a hand and putting it on his cheek, glad that at least that didn’t seem to hurt him. She stroked his cheek with her thumb, looking deep into his eyes.

“Don’t move.” she then mumbled, leaning in and ever so slowly pressing her lips on his, letting her eyes slid closed as she pressed a little closer. Despite her order he did move his lips on hers stilling the rest of his body. But the action was brief as he waited to see if he could kiss back or not. She pulled away after that, however, opening her eyes and sending a slight smile his way.

“You should rest and get better first,” she then spoke. “I’m too afraid of hurting you.” She used the hand that rested on his cheek to let her fingers run through his hair, her gaze still resting on his eyes.

“Good encouragement.” he spoke, softly rolling his eyes right after. “Younghyun... go back home... stop coming back... every five minutes... I won’t die.” He chuckled even though he regretted it right after. She smiled, smoothing his hair and going back to stroking his cheek.

“I thought I should give you some reason to not throw yourself into epic battles like an idiot. Did it work?” she then said, nuzzling her nose against his cheek softly before pulling back again. “If Younghyun wants he can come in, you know.” she then added, not even bothering to look up anymore because she knew she wouldn’t be able to see anyone anyway. “If that soothes his worried self.”

“Thank you very much,” Younghyun spoke walking to the hallway and far away from the sun light. “I’m not like Daroll hyung who can walk under midday sun and go get a tan, I’m too young.” The vampire waved when she looked up at him.

She nodded her head at him. “So what year are you officially born in, Younghyun-ssi?” she asked. If she was going to start getting to know Yeonghae’s life, she should start somewhere after all.

“Seven.... no it’s almost eight hundred years ago? And you? 18? 19 years ago?” he replied with a grin, not wanting to say any specific date. “Yeonghae is younger than me though he is older comparing our human lives. So walking on the streets I call him hyung.”

“So walking on the streets I’m your noona then.” she retorted, sending him a slight smile. “You look a little too skinny to call oppa, though, so I think you’ll just be Younghyun..nie.. Young..yah.. Hyunnie. I think I’ll call you Hyunnie.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “You have phases like the moon? So different from the last time I saw you. I like this one better. Yoonie noona.” he mused and Yeonghae scoffed, once again regretting the action right after.

“Younghyun… why don’t you go… to your portable video game… and let me have… some quality time here?” At that Younghyun grinned.

“O.K. Enjoy your pet, I’ll be upstairs. But remember we have to be back before 11 AM.”

“Yah yah, Hyunnie, I’m not a pet! Don’t make me throw a shoe at you!” she protested, but she was smiling still as she eased back into her position next to Yeonghae. “Quality time, huh?” she asked amused. “Exactly what did you think about when saying that?”

Yeonghae smiled at her. “I can’t cuddle... but you can rest on... my lap.” he offered.

“Can you lie down?” she countered instead, allowing herself to touch his face again, fingers roaming over his forehead, eyebrows, cheeks, chin, lips even.

“With help… to stand later… yes.” he countered enjoying her touches and already understanding what she wanted.

She smiled. “Good, then do so.” she said, sliding down onto the couch and patting her legs. He got the hint quite easily and – with some trouble – managed to lie down, resting his head on her lap. She continued her touches, moving down to his neck and shoulders as well, only soft brushes of her fingers in order to not hurt him more than he already was.

After some time he smirked. “This is a test… of endurance… you know?” His tone was slightly playful.

She smiled, ruffling his hair. “You’re doing fine, cowboy,” she then said, chuckling softly.

“I may snap anytime… I live on the edge of insanity… I must warn.” He pulled her hand to place a soft kiss on it. “And it’s wolfboy.”

“Oh gosh, are you going to tell me which nickname I can use and which not? You should be happy with what you get,” she replied, leaving her hand in his and giving it a soft squeeze. “I don’t think you can do much, snapping or not, you’re like partly dying.” she then commented, using her free hand to continue her soft touches.

“That’s even more dangerous... Our last breath attack... is the most powerful... And I’m not dying... I’m healing,” he countered.

“Well you save all that pent up energy for the healing process then, mister superhero.” she said amused, poking his forehead. “Don’t visit me until you’re better, okay? Next time I see you I want to jump into your arms, get twirled around three times and then treated to a milkshake. Did you note that down?”

“I’ll do that if… I gain something… in return,” he challenged.

“You should give without wanting to get something in return,” she protested, but smiled anyway. “Don’t worry, you’ll get something too. As long as you don’t forget the milkshake.” She turned her head a little, calling out in the direction of the stairs: “Hyunnie! Make sure he doesn’t forget the milkshake!”

“That’s on your account, Yonnie noona! I’ll be back home by then and we might never see each other again!” Younghyun shouted back, but soon after Yeonghae looked up at her and Younghyun came running down – more like flying, he stopped at the couch and looked intently at Meeyon. “My eyes are still red?”

She peered at him, staying silent for a good few moments, before finally eyeing him with a serious expression. “I’m afraid they are a mere chocolate brown to me, Hyunnie,” she then said, having no idea what the sudden question was all about.

“Good.” he said walking to the other couch and resuming his gaming. Not a mere two minutes later her doorbell rang. She looked up, not knowing who it might be, but then turned to look at Younghyun.

“Hyunnie, go open the door, will you?” she half asked, half ordered him. Since Yeonghae’s head was still resting on her lap she couldn’t move as easily. She continued stroking through Hae’s hair, a slight smile on her face.

“Such a pain this fake-to-be-younger thingy. Aish.” he protested but did go to the door. Once he opened up he saw a tall guy. The guy, on the other hand, looked him over in surprise, obviously not expecting to see a stranger in the house.

“Uhm, hello..” Simon spoke, tone polite. “Does Meeyon happen to be home?” When she heard his voice, however, Meeyon called to him from the living room.

“Sam! I’m over here! Come inside, let Hyunnie close the door for you. Don’t be too polite, he’s your dongsaeng!” she called, grinning amused because she was able to tease Younghyun some more.

Simon did as told, bowing his head slightly at Younghyun and then walking past him to the living room. He was once again faced with a surprising scene, however, when Yeonghae turned out to be lying on the couch as well.

“Yeonghae-ssi.” Simon greeted, sending a polite smile. “Yonnie.. How are you?” he then asked. She smiled up at him.

“Doing good. Have a seat, Sam. What brings you here?” She eyed him a moment longer, before focusing on Yeonghae again, continuing her mindless stroking through his hair. Simon eyed it for a moment, before shrugging.

“Just visiting. Sunhi told me to come here before talking to her.” he retorted, the name making Meeyon look up again in surprise.

“Younghyun... get me a glass of water... please?” Yeonghae asked his ‘dongsaeng’ who sent him a murderous glare from behind Simon. “She probably... wanted you to see... what was taking her... away from you... I went to visit… a group of friends... and got into an accident...”Yeonghae smiled apologetically at Simon, for lying and for being a tool in Sunhi’s hands.

Simon smiled slightly. “I see…” he said, his eyes wandering to Meeyon’s face, the question obvious on his face. She smiled back, before nodding once and then looking down.

“What exactly are we now?” she then asked Yeonghae so soft only he – and perhaps Younghyun – would be able to understand.

“Whatever you want.” Yeonghae whispered back hoping only she could get it as well. She would be the one to decide their relationship, never the other way around. She smiled a little wider, continuing stroking his hair and looking up at Simon again.

“Meet my boyfriend.” she then told him, smiling full out at his rather wide-eyed shocked expression – a typical Simon expression. “I’m afraid there won’t be any marrying between us when we’re thirty, Sam.”

Yeonghae looked at her at her last statement and then looked at Simon. “I hope you’ll find… your happiness… Simon-ssi… whoever it is… with…”he spoke softly, but Younghyun was the only one getting what he meant when he got back with a glass of water. They were all expecting the worse case scenario for the two couples which would be Yeonghae and Sunhi longing after the two humans who would eventually turn into an item.

“Stop talking, hyung.” Younghyun warned and placed the glass up the centre table, proceeding to help Yeonghae sit up so he could drink his glass of water. When Yeonghae got up from her lap, helped by Younghyun, Meeyon stood up and walked over to Simon, sitting down on his lap without further questions and throwing an arm around his shoulders.

“You okay, Sam?” she asked, smiling worriedly and patting his head. He nodded at her with a slight smile, however, so she decided she would not ask further and just be ready to comfort him if the conversation with Sunhi would turn out to go wrong.

After drinking the water Yeonghae eyed the two friends and Younghyun patted his head, making the uratha look at him with a little glare. “Meeyon noona, I think we better get back home, Yeonghae hyung needs to rest a lot. Please excuse us,” the vampire then said as he helped his friend to stand up. Immediately, Meeyon slipped off Simon’s lap again, walking over to the couch to help Yeonghae up.

“You heard me,” she meanwhile said. “No coming by until you’re better, okay? I’ll make sure to wait for you to get better before I move out so you can bring your whole family to help me move boxes,” She grinned at him, looking at Younghyun next. “Hyunnie dongsaeng, you’re invited as well if you want, of course.” she then added, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“If you give me food I’ll come,” Younghyun teased and earned a slap on his head by Yeonghae.

“They’ll come with me for sure... I’ll call to keep you... updated… over my state... You take care of yourself... Meeyon.” He turned to Simon then. “Good luck with Sunhi... tomorrow... She’s stressed... with our little cousins,” Yeonghae mused, hoping they could work things out.

Simon smiled, inclining his head slightly as to say thanks. His eyes wandered over the other’s body then, trying to find the wounds that were hidden by layers of clothes. It was obvious Yeonghae was in a lot of pain so he wondered what he was doing, one, out of bed and two, coming to Meeyon’s house. Yet he didn’t say anything about it, watching them disappear to the hallway, Meeyon following with a smile.

When they reached the door, she put a hand on Yeonghae’s shoulder, leaning in and pressing a kiss on his cheek. “You take care of yourself too, Yeonghae,” she then said, before turning to Younghyun and patting his head. “Be a nice dongsaeng to your hyung, Hyunnie,” she then added with a grin, before opening the door for them and letting them out.

The two friends went back to Yeonghae’s house. Younghyun kept complaining the sun was too strong that day and the next time Sungmin should be the one to escort Yeonghae because he actually liked the sun. Yeonghae didn’t really listen to his friend’s nagging, though.

The first thing he did, when he settled in his room was call Sunhi and ask her what she was planning. To his surprise, the girl asked how things had gone with Meeyon, and that based on his experience she would take act. Yeonghae told her the two of them were finally officially dating, which made his cousin smile. Sunhi excused herself then to let Yeonghae rest and a few hours later, she called Meeyon.

The latter had just sent off Simon with a few encouraging words, rushing to the phone to pick up and therefore sounding slightly out of breath as she greeted with: “Meeyon speaking.”

“Meeyon-ssi, this is Sunhi... I’m sorry for what I said a few days before and for what I am going to do tomorrow.” the girl said with a sad tone.

Meeyon took the phone away from her ear for a moment, looking at it as if she’d magically see the face of the person calling appear there, before putting it back to her ear. “What exactly are you going to do tomorrow?”

“I’m going to tell Simon and let him decide for himself... Is it ok if I do that in your house? I’m going out with him for lunch and then I’ll tell him the truth but he won’t believe and will certainly ask for proof. You know the only proof I can give him is morphing and I can’t bring him to our house, the pups are a little rebel. Also, going to your house you would be able to comfort him right away if it’s needed, so... Can I count on you?” Meeyon smiled slightly, nodding a bit before realising Sunhi couldn’t see that and resorting to words.

“Sure you can come here. But... Give him a while to get used to the idea. He’s like me, so he will probably resent the whole thing at first and it might take time for him to get used to it, so don’t give up on him after one rejection, please...” She couldn’t help smiling sadly over the struggle she had only recently won, thinking about how it would be for Simon.

“He may be a little bit different than you, Meeyon-shi, your beliefs are different. But thank you... You can’t imagine how happy I am for Hae... I hope you don’t mind scars... Yeonghae will have an ugly one once he heals completely. I’m going now... Apparently I have to assist the anti-social Seungi oppa with the pups.” Sunhi sighed at the other side of the line.

“Sunhi…”Meeyon quickly said, before the other could hang up again like last time. “Could you tell me once what it’s like? Werewolf pups...”

“We are born like any other child, we are human in all senses for a few years... No-one knows for sure what makes us morph. It usually happens in puberty. We call pups the kids that have just transformed and are completely lost on what it means to be a werewolf. They are not like a baby dog or anything. The newest pup is Wonshik’s son, human age he has just turned twenty-one werewolf age he is one year old. We are teaching five new werewolves to use our gifts, abilities only a certain werewolf can perform. My brother Kangdae had his first transformation during a full moon, so he is a rahu, Yeonghae had his in a gibbous moon, so he is a cahalith, I had mine in new moon, so I’m an irraka, therefore we have different abilities. I’m directly teaching two pups, Seungi is teaching another two, he is an elodoth, Wonshik is an ithaeur and is teaching his son while Kangdae is torturing all of them on war experience. All of us have been human for a short moment of our lives, Meeyon, and when we die we turn back to the form we were born in, we die in human form.” Sunhi explained with a caring tone. When she finished, Meeyon stayed silent for a little while longer, before sighing softly.

“Thank you..” she then said. “I’ll see you tomorrow then? Say hi to everyone for me.”

“Ok. See you tomorrow. Leave the glass door open please. Byebye.”

The next day Simon left his house half an hour before he was supposed to meet Sunhi, even though the park she had asked to meet him in was not even ten minutes away. To not arrive way too early, he walked around for a good fifteen minutes before going there, nervous about what he should expect to come out of the conversation.

To his surprise Sunhi was already there, talking with a tall but not too tall guy. He had quite a feminine face and was smiling a little way too worriedly at her. She said something and he nodded with a frown but then he pulled up his backpack and gave her a box from within it. He patted her shoulder and left, walking in Simon’s direction. When the guy was almost by his side he looked up and their gaze met. Simon could swear he saw a glint of a red line around the guy’s pupils.

For a moment he followed the other guy with his eyes, but then he turned back to Sunhi, casually walking up to her, as if he wasn’t dying inside, wanting to know what she would say to him. “Hey.” he greeted rather lamely once he reached her, sending her a small smile.

Sunhi turned to him with a small smile of her own. “Hey... First of all, I’m sorry for turning down your calls and not replying your messages. I was not ready to face this moment...” she started, looking deep in his eyes. He felt his heart clench at those words, hoping they did not incline what he thought they would. But he shook his head anyway.

“No, I’m sorry for asking such a thing of you. It doesn’t really matter to me what religion you have or that you have none at all.” he apologized as well, innocently believing that was what it was all about.

She smiled over his words and wished that was all the problem. “What I have to tell you... is much worse than that Simon. I’m not breaking up with you, you will be the one to do that, may it be today or years from now,” she said softly, feeling her body shivering. He stilled, confusion slowly taking over his expression.

“What are you talking about, Sunhi?” he asked, noticing her shivering the moment they started. “Are you cold? Do you want my jacket?” He was already zipping it open before she could protest, though, draping it around her shoulders and making sure it stayed that way. “Is everything alright with you?” he then asked, the confusion having turned into worry as his mind came up with several explanation for her behaviour, one even more dramatic than the other.

She bit her lower lip. “Simon... I love you. I will love you for the rest of my life. This will be a truth you’ll carry for the rest of your life, but what I am, what you see right now, is just a little part of my truth. I’m not like you Simon...I’m not human.”

He stared at her then, blinking a few times before slowly coming back to his senses. “That’s not funny.” he stated.

She looked at him with a sad smile. “It is not indeed, but it is true. I am what you humans call a werewolf. Not only me, but my brother and Yeonghae are too. My whole family is composed of werewolves, and the centre of Sosari is our territory. But we are different from what the stories say. We are no monsters, Simon.”

She looked at him with hope in her eyes.

He stared at her, face blank. “Are you telling me my best friend is dating some kind of thing that turns into a wolf and eats people at full moon?” he questioned with some irony in his voice, his first concern for Meeyon and not for the fact that he did the exact same thing. It was too unbelievable to take it serious.

“First of all we don’t eat people. There are werewolves that hate humans, but we are not like that. My family and I, we protect the humans against other supernatural beings. The guy you saw talking with me, he is a vampire, but his coven also don’t kill humans. We have an alliance. Yeonghae got injured in a fight to protect humans! We are no monsters Simon. Meeyon-ssi knows. She accepted us.” Sunhi looked away from him, taking one last sniff of his scent before giving back his jacket.

“Meeyon knows?” he echoed, trying to imagine how she could’ve picked Yeonghae while knowing something like that and the next moment dejectedly wondering why she didn’t tell him about it. He completely ignored the jacket being handed back to him, not even realising she was holding it out to him. In the end, he snapped back to reality, letting his eyes rest on her again. “You’re telling me I should believe things like werewolves and vampires actually exist? That is the lamest excuse to break up ever, Sunhi.” he then spoke, voice soft as he took the jacket and put it around her shoulders again.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe so I’ll prove it to you then. And if you’re wondering why Meeyon didn’t say anything, she can’t. Humans should believe in the stories and keep blind to the truth. I’m only telling you because I love you and if ever we go further you must know the consequences and the dangers of being around me. Our reality is much more complicated than what your stories say. Take this box and go to Meeyon’s house. I already told her what I’m planning. If you don’t want to see me after that I will understand. Your parents... You deserve a devoted Believer to be your wife, not a female werewolf like me,” She pulled the jacket off again and handed it to him along with the box. “Please... Go to her house and don’t tell anyone but her what I told you. Your life depends on you being silent,” she warned him with a pained smile, her eyes glistening with tears.

He didn’t understand. Didn’t understand at all. But the tears in her eyes worried him, so he took the box and the jacket. “You’re not running away now, are you?” he questioned, just to be sure.

She shook her head. “I was not even going to tell you. I was just simply going to vanish from your life. But Meeyon told me to let you choose, so that’s what I am doing. I’ll go there right after you, Simon, just not in this human form. I have to get to a safe place to change before going there. Please do as I say and then you can make your own conclusions.” She pulled herself up on the tips of her feet and pecked him on the lips, before passing by him and running away.

He stood dazed for a few moments, before turning on his heels, too late to still see her. With a head filled with questions and a heart filled with worry, he set for Meeyon’s house. It took him less long as normal to walk the distance and soon he was ringing her doorbell, hoping she was home. When she opened not moments later, with a slight smile on her face and some kind of knowledge in her eyes, he realised she did indeed know about this beforehand and slowly, ever so slowly, he started to realise that maybe Sunhi hadn’t been making up stories. He walked inside, being guided to the living room and taking a seat there, not saying anything, just waiting. He noticed the glass door to the garden was open, even though it wasn’t that warm outside.

It took around ten minutes until some grey and brown-ish big ‘dog’ easily jumped over the limit wall of Meeyon’s house and strode its way across the garden. The slender and beautiful animal looked intently at Simon and then whined in Meeyon’s direction. To that, Meeyon took a bathrobe from one of the free couches, holding it up in front of Sunhi as if it was already agreed beforehand. She completely ignored Simon who was looking at it all with confused eyes, obviously not getting the whole picture just yet.

The next moment, the ‘dog’ looked back at Simon and soon the features changed from wolf-ish to human. The fur disappeared from its face and some white soft skin took its place. The sharp yellow eyes turned into the caramel ones he knew so well, the brown wavy hair he knew, grew in seconds and soon Sunhi was sitting on the floor hidden behind the bathrobe. She silently took it from Meeyon’s hands, while turning to her and smiling to thank her, only then looking back to Simon once again.

“The one to break us up is you Simon. You can ask me anything, I’ll answer… And if you want me to leave I’ll go.” she said. But Simon was just staring open-mouthed, not able to ask any questions because he was too shocked about what he had just seen. It was impossible for that to have been faked. It had been too real, but if he didn’t know Meeyon would never do something like that to him, he’d still think they had played a trick on him.

Sunhi looked down, completely lost. She bit her lips and blinked the tears away, but then she smiled, a smile falsely bright. “I’ll give you time. Meeyon can listen to you. Once you know what you want or if you want more explanations, you know where to find me. I won’t pressure more. See you, Simon...” One tear managed to fall down before she was able to change back into her wolf form and poke Meeyon with her nose as a goodbye. She then strode to the garden without looking back, but wanting him to ask her to stay before she could jump away.

It was Meeyon who walked up to Simon once Sunhi started to walk away, jabbing him hard in the side so he would snap out of his daze. The moment the pain registered in his mind, Simon jumped up, realising Sunhi was walking away from him again.

“Sunhi, wait!” he called out, not able to rush to the door to physically stop her, but hoping she would hear him. His legs were shaking, however, so he sat down again soon after, turning to look at Meeyon with disbelief in his eyes, grabbing her hand for some comfort. She smiled at him, sitting down next to him and using her free hand to stroke through his hair.

He turned to look at the door again then, hoping Sunhi wasn’t gone yet, hoping she came back. She did stop but didn’t walk back yet. Only when she remembered Meeyon had scolded Yeonghae about the neighbours seeing him did she run back inside and hide close to the wall like a scared puppy. Simon motioned awkwardly with his free hand at her, the other still clutching on to Meeyon’s.

“Could you please like.. You know.. Human.. So we can talk?” he stammered, frowning slightly.

Sunhi walked to the forgotten bathrobe and got it in her mouth before sneaking to the kitchen. She came back a few moments later dressed in the robe. She looked at his joined hands with Meeyon and couldn’t refrain the pain from taking over her senses. She then sat on the other couch looking at her hands.

For a while there was silence as Simon tried to gather his thoughts and make them more coherent. Meeyon simply sat next to him, letting him hold her hand and putting the other one comfortingly on top of their joined hands. She calmly watched him, by now knowing quite how her friend worked and that he needed some time. She turned to look at Sunhi for a moment too, sending her a reassuring smile as the silence kept on. Finally, Simon moved a little.

“What does this change?” he then asked, eyes pinned on Sunhi.

“You can’t tell the secret to anyone otherwise I’ll have to kill you. Other than that, nothing. As I said we are no monsters. I hunt spirits, I eat normal food, I age just a little slower than what humans do...” Sunhi levelled his stare and spoke slowly.

Again Simon fell silent, not knowing what to say. All he had to do was decide if it changed anything for him, but that was a question she could not answer in his place. Instead he turned to look at Meeyon again, who sent him another apologetic smile, as if she knew exactly how lost he felt at that moment, as if it was her fault too.

He let his eyes slide down to their still joined hands, finally realising that it was not the hand he wanted to hold, not the person he wanted so close, but still the only one he knew would allow him to keep her so close. For a moment longer he stared at their hands, before he slowly pulled free. She let go so easily he almost felt offended; would she always let go of him that easily?

Without another word he got up, walking out of the living room and into the hallway, disappearing around the corner. It was there that he closed his eyes, allowed his mind and body to freak out over what was happening and sank down against the wall until he sat on the ground.

Meeyon followed him out with her eyes, before getting up and walking to Sunhi, sitting down on the armrest of that couch and taking hold of Sunhi’s hand now, to prevent her from possibly leaving.

The touch made Sunhi break down and the tears she was hardly suppressing came down. She remembered Yeonghae crying on her shoulder, how hurt he was for believing Meeyon would never accept him, how empty he seemed when he came back home with Younghyun, how bad his injury was... He almost died and was even unconsciously stopping his healing process; he should have been fully healed by then if he was not seeking his early death. Being rejected by the human they fell in love with completely breaks their frail balance of sanity, and she was actually glad Yeonghae became careless instead of attacking the vampires while he was in the fury of his most dangerous form... She wanted to avoid that, but there she was facing the same moment.

In an attempt to ease her mind she pulled Meeyon to her and softly whispered in her ear. “That box has a silver dagger in it. The one that injured Yeonghae.” Meeyon wrapped her arms tentatively around the other, just holding her as she cried and spoke.

“Why did you give him the dagger that injured Yeonghae?” she asked then, kind of assuming she knew the answer already, but hoping that wasn’t the actual reason. Her eyes skimmed her garden, checking for signs of other people, wolves or vampires, but there was no one. In her head she was counting the seconds, something she had grown used to ever since she got to know Simon.

“I asked Sungmin oppa to bring it, but he suddenly showed up at the park. I wanted to give it to you so I thought Simon could bring it. I don’t want Yeonghae to know so I couldn’t take it back home with me.” Sunhi smiled a little. “Take it as a war souvenir... A reminder that Yeonghae is mortal.”

“Oh if it’s only that.” Meeyon replied, relief obvious in her voice. She then patted Sunhi’s back, before letting go a little. “Count with me. Ninety seconds down to zero. Eighty-nine. Eighty-eight..” she told the other, continuing until Sunhi got the rhythm.

Sunhi stared at her, confusion written all over her face but still she counted along. When they were half way the count she suddenly realised she was counting for Simon’s reaction. Meeyon knew him that much, it pained Sunhi again.

“He counts it himself too. Four minutes, twenty seconds. Every time he gets upset and walks away. Always count. Four minutes, twenty seconds.” she explained, once Sunhi seemed to realise what it was for. “‘Four minutes is too short to make up your mind, but five minutes is too long to keep someone waiting.’ He told me that the first time he did it to me when I asked him why he left. Ask him things, he’ll always answer, never wait for him to tell it himself,” She smiled slightly. “I’m telling you this because it sucks not to know anything about someone when you’re dying to know everything. Now you’re almost at zero, so I’ll be leaving you alone. Remember; ask.”

She smiled at the other, stroking her back once more, before letting go and getting up from the couch as her counting reached twenty. Sunhi nodded and waited silently, counting the last seconds. She pulled her legs up and rested her forehead on her knees.

Exactly at the last second, there was movement again in the hallway and Simon walked into the living room again, right as Meeyon left it. The both of them exchanged a short look and Meeyon nudged his shoulder with hers encouragingly. It was probably the fact that his best friend who knew him so well knew about this too and seemed to be perfectly okay with it, that made him feel so relaxed as he walked up to Sunhi.

Once he walked back into the living room, Sunhi opened her mouth to ask the question that was eating her alive. “Are you... Do you... despise me now?” He stopped walking as he heard that, eyeing her in surprise and finding so much insecurity that he immediately closed the distance between them, pulling her up from the couch and crushing her against his chest in a hug.

“Don’t think that,” he told her almost desperately. “Don’t ever think that. I love you, that doesn’t suddenly change, okay?”

She immediately wrapped her arms around him and smiled truly for the first time that day. “Simon... Do you want to keep loving me? The true me?” He didn’t loosen his grip, holding her close, hoping to reassure her that he would not let her go.

“My parents... After they met you they told me they didn’t like the idea of me with a non-Believer girl... I told them that if it’s the person I love and who loves me truthfully, they shouldn’t care whether she is Believer, Zealot or a Devilworshipper. Our belief tells us to love everyone equally, doesn’t it?” he confessed to her, smiling slightly as he continued. “You might not believe in God, but that’s fine with me. Even if you howl at the moon and sacrifice lambs for dinner, I’d still love you, Sunhi, I can’t change that, even if I’d wanted to.”

“I do nothing of that. First of all, I am powerful during the new moon! Would you believe me if I told you that there are vampires that believe in God? Believe me, you humans know very, very little about us.”

He smiled, finally letting go a little so he could lean back enough to look at her. He wiped away the few lost tears on her cheeks, pressing a kiss on her lips and smiling at her.

“I’m willing to try this, whatever ‘this’ may be, living with you and your family and all their secrets,” he then said. “I can’t promise you I’ll be able to live it through, but I’m willing to try and make the best of it.”

“Thank you, Simon.” Sunhi smiled. “I love you.” She pulled him to her, to decently kiss him.


	4. First Quarter

Simon and Sunhi reuniting took a lot of troubles away from Meeyon, and when she settled the payment for her new house, there was only one thing to worry about left. Yet it was her biggest worry, nagging at the back of her mind all the time; hoping Yeonghae would be fine. She became so worried that she pushed it away from her mind completely, focusing on packing boxes and gathering her belongings as to not have to think about it. She grew used to being alone in the house, so used to it that she would automatically go open the door whenever someone rang the bell, because she knew no one else would do it.

The same happened about a week after the events between Sunhi and Simon. When someone rang the doorbell, she rushed down from the attic, wiping her hair out of her face and trying to make herself look slightly decent in her free time joggings with a sweaty face and dusty hair. She opened the door, a polite smile on her face as she opened her mouth to greet whoever it was, but the words never left her when she saw the other.

“Vanilla milkshake.” Yeonghae showed her and without a second though pulled her to him crashing his lips on hers.

She pushed him away almost immediately, the contact between their mouths only a brief few seconds long. She eyed him with a frown on her face, putting her hands on her hips.

“My reward for bring your milkshake. I want it,” he pouted at her. “You promised,”

“You got me milkshake, yes, but you forgot the jumping in your arms and twirling around three times, so that’s no reward for you and your fail memory,” she countered, leaning in and taking the milkshake from his hands. “Nice try, though.” she then said, closing the door on his face.

“Meeyoon, how can I do that holding a milkshake? Let me in!” he whined. She grinned, taking a sip from the milkshake and walking into the kitchen, pretending to ignore him, but intently listening to hear if he was saying something more.

There were no sounds though and when no other sound came, she walked up the stairs again, planning to continue her packing as if nothing had happened, only now she was happily sipping from a vanilla milkshake. When she put the empty glass down though, a pair of arms wrapped around her middle. She froze in place, turning her head so she could see whom it was.

“Did no one ever teach you breaking in to people’s houses is not appropriate?” she then asked.

“I can always make them believe otherwise,” Yeonghae countered. “When are you planning to move out?” he then changed the subject. Or tried to.

“When are you planning to let me jump you, twirl me around and then treat me to milkshakes?” she countered.

“Today is a good day, yes,” he nodded childishly. “If you go take a bath and change we can go out for more milkshake, but you can jump me now.” He released her and took a step back with open arms for her.

She turned around as he let go, but only to send him a pout. “You don’t want people to see you with me out in the open when I have dusty hair?” she whined instead of running up to him.

He rolled his eyes. “No. I don’t want that. I want to hear the guys cursing the daylights out of me for having such a hot chick with me, so you have to look gorgeous when walking around with me,” he countered, still with open arms.

“You only want me because I’m gorgeous?” she said disappointedly. “And I thought you really loved me, ah!” She put the back of her hand against her forehead, pretending to be hurt badly.

“If you don’t jump me now, I’ll go on another epic battle,” he told her seriously. She was in his arms in less than three seconds, wrapping her legs tightly around his middle and her arms around his neck. He grinned and twirled around three times as she had asked. The grin turned into a silly smile of pure happiness. He was still holding her when he asked: “Do we need to go for milkshake or does the one I gave you earlier count?”

She leaned back, trusting him to be strong enough to carry her. She cupped his face in her hands and leaned in to press her lips on his for a kiss. He tried his luck and kissed back, wanting very much to deepen the kiss as much as he could. Before it could get anywhere close to that kind of a kiss, she pulled away again already, however, hugging him again and muzzling her face in his neck. He sighed but he would wait for her. He would always wait for her.

“Want me to call my hyungs?”

“What would you call your hyungs for?” she protested. “I just got you back, let me have my quality time with you now,” She pressed a kiss on the skin of his neck, before lifting her head and smiling at him. “From now on I want full reports before you go and you’re not allowed to leave without my permission, you got that?”

He pouted over that. “Possessive much? I’ll give you your reports, but you’ll have to get used to the fact I fight every night. I need to hunt, Meeyon. I can only skip one day out of three, otherwise it could get dangerous for you.” He turned serious halfway his speech.

“That’s not how it goes, Yeonghae. It goes like ‘Meeyon-ah, baby, if you allow me to I will have to go hunt almost every night, otherwise it might get dangerous for you.’ Repeat after me...”

“Sorry, baby,” He repeated what she said but it wouldn’t change the fact she would not be able to control him in that aspect. “And about my hyungs, you said they could help you move, but I don’t mind taking that from them,” he said. “No. Not even a little bit. No Younghyun also.” he added after.

“I allow you to, sweetie.” she replied, before ruffling his hair. “Now you can go and be the big hero, but don’t get yourself killed, okay? That’s an order. If you die I’ll follow you down that road, so you better stay alive, you hear me?” She muzzled her cheek against his, feeling a little bit too happy that she could hold him again and cuddle with him.

“So do I help you finish packing or can I kidnap you to your bed to cuddle for the rest of the day?” he questioned adjusting her on his grip so he could have her closer. She hummed something, enjoying the hug a little longer, before waggling out of his grip and letting herself sink back down on her feet.

“I should finish with the attic so I won’t have to climb up to this dusty place anymore after today,” she then said. “But you’d just be running in my way here, so if you could like pack all the books in my room in boxes?”

“Ok,” he nodded and leaned in, only to stop half way and smiling at her. “Be there with me soon, please?” Saying that he completely let go of her and left for her room.

She smiled after him, before continuing her routine of checking the boxes to see what was in them. It took her about an hour longer before she finished, having gathered all the boxes that she could get rid off closer to the stairs and the others separated in ‘take with me’ and ‘leave here in dusty attic.’ She then stuck her head out of the attic, looking down the ladder into the hallway, calling out for Yeonghae.

He came back a few minutes after. “Yes, baby?” he smirked over the pet name for her.

“If I drop these boxes, can you catch them and carry them downstairs?” she questioned, smiling at him cutely.

“Let me check, I’m just slightly stronger than a normal human. I’m not superman in this form,” So he climbed up and checked on each box. There was one particularly heavier than the others so he took it down with him, taking extra care as he descended. “Ok, the others you can drop.”

“You’re not superman?” she pouted as he was checking the boxes. When he carried down the heavy box, that looked like super human strength to her anyway, so she dropped the subject. She then carefully took the first box, lifting it above the hole and looking down. “Ready?”

“Shoot!” he grinned at her.

She dropped the box, anxiously watching if he would catch it or if it would go wrong. He did catch it and with easy, asking her to pull the others. And like that Yeonghae helped Meeyon pack her last stuffs and then helped her unpack them in her new apartment, along with all his loud cousins. Only Sunhi was not there, because he was having fun with Simon. The werewolf pack threw a small party and then left the love birds alone.

Slowly they settled a routine. She went to school and got a part-time job, while Yeonghae worked full time under his uncle’s company – hacking around the internet for possible information that could be manipulated so they could gain more money on speculations – and trained the pups during the gibbous moon. At those particular nights he had less control of his balance between flesh and spirit and therefore refrained from visiting Meeyon. All the other nights he was there with her. At least she accepted to wake up to see him beside her on the nights he was out hunting and a few other times he would go to bed with her.

As for their interaction, Meeyon never let it go much further, they would share a peck now and then – much then than now – but cuddle a whole lot. At a certain point Yeonghae was ok with the little kissing he got, but then he resorted on kissing her neck, at first as a tease, but then as his silent plea for more as they became more often.

His little attempt resulted in her cutting him off once more with a simple “Why do you keep messing with my neck? Are you secretly a vampire hybrid too?”

To that he tried to retort with a “You don’t let me kiss your lips I have to kiss something else.” to which she laughed and changed the subject. He also stopped kissing her neck feeling defeated and slightly insecure.

Like that, eight months passed before they got some nerve wrecking news. Daroll’s clan was being targeted by hunters and once again requested for help from the alliance. And once again the selected wolves to go were Seungi, Chanhyeok and Yeonghae, although this time they also agreed they should take Kangdae along from the start, even if he didn’t want to leave Sunhi out of his surveillance – the relationship with Simon was getting a little bit too hot to his liking.

And so in the first quarter of that month, when Meeyon arrived home from her part time job, Yeonghae had prepared dinner and Younghyun was lazily playing on his game console splashed on her couch.

“Night Yeonghae’s pet!” he teased, not tearing his eyes from the device.

“Evening Hyunniebunny.” she replied, kicking out her shoes and throwing her jacket over the coat hanger. She proceeded to walk up to Yeonghae to greet him with a kiss on his cheek and then moved over to Younghyun to hug his neck, since he never liked to be disturbed too much in his gaming.

“I’m taking Yeonghae on an epic battle again so you better give him a proper goodbye this time. I don’t want him spacing out in the middle of a fight against a ridden with a silver dagger,” he informed nonchalantly. She froze upon hearing those words, her arms still around Younghyun’s neck, her chin resting on his head. After a moment, she turned her head to look in the direction Yeonghae was at.

“Are you?” she asked for confirmation, since Younghyun was known to say random stuff just to bug her.

“I am. We’re being targeted by a bunch of hunters lacking vampire blood. We’re plotting a counter attack. Those freaks almost got Henry and seriously injured Jia and Jihoon. We discovered their hideout was partly there and partly here so we’re sending the werewolves to take them down there while we take them down here.” Younghyun spoke slowly, released himself from her grip and looked at her right after. For the first time she saw his eyes pure red.

She lifted a hand as if to touch them, intrigued by the colour, but luckily dropped it again before she could. “Just make sure you will all come back alive,” she then said softly, turning away and walking back to Yeonghae to do as Younghyun had told her – say goodbye decently.

He had already set the table and the food was waiting for her. He hadn’t said anything before, even though he had listened to their whole exchange. “Go wash up so we can have dinner.” he told her. She didn’t listen, however, walking up to him and slipping her arms around him, pressing herself against him as if that would make him not leave her, even though she knew he had to.

He tried to pull her back though. “Hey... I’m hungry. Go wash up so we can eat and then we can cuddle till you go sleep. Ok?” he smiled to assure her he was going to be ok.

She nodded, smiling back at him as she turned away and walked to the bathroom. By the time she locked the door behind her, however, tears were already running over her cheeks and the familiar tremble in her hands back. She turned on the shower, listening to the water run as she took off her working clothes, dumping them in the laundry box before stepping under the stream of warm water.

After a short shower of ten minutes, she stepped out again, drying herself and putting on her more comfortable clothes for around the house. When she went back to the kitchen, she had herself completely under control again, the trembling gone as well. She took her place at the table, waiting for the other two to join her again.

Yeonghae sat down while Younghyun just eyed them eating. “I don’t know if I miss the times food tasted good in my mouth,” Younghyun wondered taking a sniff on the food and then of Meeyon. “Noona has a much tastier smell to me.” She pushed his face away without even looking at him.

“Noona is not for eating. Don’t you get weird ideas about my neck too, you hear me?” she huffed, stuffing more food in her mouth. Yeonghae was a really good cook – which had surprised her at first – so it was always nice when he made dinner.

“Don’t want Yeonghae jumping on me either. I’m already full. Had a feast before leaving home this evening.” Younghyun retorted, going back to the living room and his comfortable spot on her comfy couch. Yeonghae in his turn did glare at Younghyun.

When the two finished eating and they were cleaning the dishes Yeonghae dared to ask. “Do you want to come with me?”

She turned her head to look at him shortly, before picking up a new plate and drying it. “Where to?”

“Daroll’s house.” Yeonghae replied with a whisper, wondering from where he got the courage to want to bring her into the battlefield. Her hands stopped moving for a moment, before she continued.

“And do what? Stand in the way? Worry you because you think I might get hurt? It’s better if I stay home.” she replied softly, not looking at him.

“I’ll have Henry checking up on you then... Is it ok if you could take care of the injured Jia and Jihoon? Daroll wants his blood dolls away from the house until they are fine again,” Yeonghae nodded. “Can I ask for an encouragement to come back?” She nodded at his words, but at the last line looked up at him.

“Is the fact that I’ll be waiting for you to return not enough?” she asked then, her tone joking, but a hint of seriousness in it as well. She put the plate into the cupboard and took a new one.

He looked at the empty sink and sighed. “Never mind. Let’s get you to bed, shall we?” He sent her a caring smile.

She was drying the last plate, putting it away with the rest and then hanging up her towel. “Now you’re treating me like I’m five. When do you leave?”

“Tonight. Right after you fall asleep.” He looked at her to take in her features.

She sighed, turning to him to wrap her arms around him in a hug. “What if I refuse to sleep?”

“Then I’ll have to knock you down,” he joked, wrapping his arms around her. “They hurt humans, Meeyon. Because of the alliance, Daroll’s territory is like our territory as well, so it’s our duty to protect it, to clean it. I’ve been ordered to go, so I have to. Is it ok for one of the blood dolls to hide here?”

“Both can. This Jia and Jihoon you mentioned... They can both stay here. Taking care of them will keep my mind off you.” she replied, sighing a little as she stood up on her toes to press a short kiss on his lips. “I guess I’ll be going to bed then... Early day tomorrow.”

Yeonghae nodded. “They are humans Meeyon, if you didn’t get it yet. You have just one bedroom and one couch. Jihoon is closer with Sunhi, so Simon will take care of him. Jia is less injured so he can stay on the couch,” He pulled her up in his arms to take her to her room. “I’ll be back shortly, the moon will be by my side.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Obviously I’m not letting guests sleep on my couch. When are they coming? I should be up when they do...”

“Tomorrow evening they will be here. You’ll get to know the second oldest vampire in their house, he’s Jia’s ‘owner’.” Yeonghae chuckled.

After being put down again by Yeonghae once they reached her bedroom, she quickly went to change in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and washing her face before going to bed. Yeonghae got into bed with her and she automatically cuddled up close to him. They exchanged a few more words about the human that would come over and the vampire he was ‘owned’ by, but soon she felt herself dozing off, as it had been a tiring day. She clung to him a little tighter when she realised he would be gone as she woke up again, temporarily waking up a little and cuddling even closer to him, but soon after she really did fall asleep.

Yeonghae silently left her house after he was sure Henry was already hiding in the shadows to look after her. That night, Yeonghae and his cousins left to Daroll’s territory while the vampires brought their injured blood dolls to theirs. The werewolves were quite surprised to know that from Daroll’s strongest progenies only Sungmin would stay behind. There were other younger vampires with them but certainly they wouldn’t partake in the main battle.

They spent the next day making sure Jia and Jihoon safely left, Younghyun took his girlfriend with him and so did Chungyeol. When the evening was close, Daroll asked the werewolves to his grand hall so they could discuss the matter.

Yeonghae was talking with Daroll about his plan of breaking into the enemy’s hideout, when Kangdae protested that they couldn’t do that for their prime duty was to protect the humans, even if the human knows about them and fight them. They could only fight back if they were directly attacked. He had just said that when one of Daroll’s progeny, a girl named Nina, entered the room with a grave burn wound on her arm, shouting the hunters had broken inside the mansion.

Daroll and Sungmin immediately pulled out their swords while Yeonghae, Chanhyeok, Seungi and Kangdae took off their shirts to transform into their dalu form. They couldn’t do that before a little group of five heavily armed humans stepped in the hall almost burning Nina again with their fire blasters. All the wolves widened their eyes when the leader angrily looked at them.

“So we meet again,” said leader spoke, a grim expression on his face. “I knew bad stuff was up when I saw you at my little sister’s house.” His eyes went to Yeonghae then, scanning the human with his eyes. A glint of anger flashed through his eyes before he composed himself again. “My sister will never forgive me if I kill you, so leave now before it’s too late.”

“I can’t do that. You’re staining our territory and harming human lives. We can’t let you live any longer,” Yeonghae sighed throwing his shirt away. “What would you have done back then if you knew who I am?” He then questioned with indifference in his eyes. Back then, he had smelled a subtle vampire scent on Meeyon’s brother, but decided not to think about it, for the scent could perfectly have been because he had been food, and not the one drinking.

“Well if you’re unwilling to leave, then you better get ready to die, you piece of filth.” Meeyon’s brother hissed, totally ignoring the question and signing his gang to get ready for the attack.

Yeonghae scoffed at the order and without a second thought changed to his almost human form. Following his movements, his cousins did the same and the five humans faced four big werewolves and three vampires.

One of the humans, the one looking younger and very inexperienced, dropped his weapons and ran out of the room. Nina looked at Daroll and swiftly moved away, successfully locking the door of the grand hall behind her. The battlefield was closed now. The wolves howled and sprinted in the humans’ direction in perfect sync with the vampire blades.

It was safe to say that having four werewolves in the presence of vampires was surprising already, but seeing them fight together was a whole new level of unexpected for the hunters. They found themselves momentarily stunned, but when their leader composed himself once more and started the attack, they followed suit. After all, they had promised to give their lives in order to kill everything supernatural like this. The problem was that that little moment of astonishment had already set the winners.

Daroll moved to the west and Chanhyeok followed suit. They captured the attention of one of the hunters as Chanhyeok sprinted forward. He blocked the human’s view, thereby allowing the vampire leader to hack into the human’s shoulder with his sword. Daroll then suddenly thrust the sword in the human’s chest, while Chanhyeok managed to bite his left arm and make him drop his fire blaster. The man still tried to be of any use, but he was obviously too slow. The fight was lost before he could do anything.

At the other side of the room, Sungmin took one opponent, being assisted by Seungi. The werewolf jumped behind the targeted hunter and bit his shoulder, immobilizing his left arm. The guy shouted in pain but still aimed his fire blaster in Sungmin’s direction. The vampire merely stepped forward and after several feints to avoid the fire with grace, he lashed out with his sword, stabbing and immobilizing the hunter’s other arm.

He smirked as Seungi let the screaming human free, easily breaking the man’s legs to make him kneel in front of the vampire. With another gracious movement, Sungmin then bent his wrist twirling the sword before stabbing the hunter’s heart.

Next to them Kangdae was having fun with a hunter who apparently thought that shouting and cursing the wolves would make him stronger. The uratha decided that the fight was no fun anymore so he played a bit before finishing his target off. First he landed a punch on the guys chest, making him fly against the mahogany door, and without giving his foe the chance to see what had happened, Kangdae stepped on his chest and pulled the fire blasters out of his arms, dislocating them. Kangdae hollowed at the easy win but before he could kill the enemy, he remembered something. So he simply broke the guy’s neck and threw the dead body in Sungmin’s direction with a playful “Food.”

Before Sungmin could thank him, they heard the sound of a normal revolver. The two vampires and three werewolves turned immediately to the sound. They saw Meeyon’s brother – the hunters’ leader – running in the direction of the closest window and jump through it. Only then did they notice Yeonghae on the floor, howling and clenching his shoulder. Mere moments later, he was changing back to his human form, blood flowing through his fingers.

Differently from the subordinates, Meeyon’s brother certainly had drunk a lot more vampire blood, because not only was he able to jump and avoid Yeonghae’s first strike, but he had also been able to dispose himself of the fire blasters and take the revolver from behind his coat. He was well prepared having a pistol with silver bullets always there with him. The vampires quickly attended the wounded uratha, but all of them seemed astonished as the wound started closing mere moments later like a normal wound would.

“It may have had a very little amount of silver in the bullet, just enough to cause pain at the impact. Yeonghae are you, ok?” Daroll informed and the wolf growled. Enough to know he would be fine soon.

“It hurts like hell. It’s burning.” Yeonghae hissed moments later when Chanhyeok and Seungi helped him up.

“Let’s take him to a guest room.” Sungmin opened the door and came face to face with the hunter that had escaped, Nina firmly holding his arm. “Foes should be dead, Nina.” Sungmin hissed looking at the guy angrily.

“He surrendered.” the girl informed and Sungmin relaxed.

“Then step aside. That asshole had a pistol with silver bullets, he managed to hurt Yeonghae and escape.” Sungmin pulled them aside and let Chanhyeok and Seungi take Yeonghae to the guest room.

Once they left, Nina made the guy enter the room to see his teammates dead on the floor. He winced when Daroll pulled his chin up. “What’s you name child?”

He widened his eyes at the caring tone in the vampire’s voice. “Kim Kevin…” his low voice then filled the air in reply.

“How did you get involved with the hunters, kiddo?” The young man eyed Kangdae who was intently looking at him. He expected the werewolf to be much more frightening, but Kangdae was back in his human form and his tone was not caring, but was also not intimidating, just impartial.

“Vam-vampire attacked me and… Minki hyung… saved me… But he said I couldn’t go back and live like nothing happened… That I needed to fight with him… But I’m not a fighter…” Kevin spoke, trying not to sound as terrified as he was.

“I know it will sound absurd for you, but don’t be scared, you are safe here. Do you have somewhere to go back to?” Daroll spoke again and Kevin looked in his eyes.

Moments later he shook his head. “I’m an orphan…”

“You’ll adopt another son?!” Kangdae shouted and Kevin looked at him astonished.

“I’ll have a younger brother!” Nina suddenly hugged Kevin from behind making him jump at the sudden touch.

“I’m not embracing him, Nina. I’m offering a place to live.” Kevin looked back at Daroll at that.

“You what?!” he questioned once again astonished. “I was going to fight against you and now you’re offering me a place to stay? What for?!”

Daroll smiled and Kangdae rolled his eyes. “Kiddo,” Kangdae started but Kevin interrupted him saying his name was Kevin. “What. Ever. We, and that is Daroll and his vampires plus me and my pack, actually protect humans. If Daroll could take home every orphan in the city he would do it. But it’s not good to get many humans to know about us. There are many other werewolves out there that are like us, but not as many vampires. And there are also werewolves that love to eat humans. Hunters should fight them, not us. But you humans only know about the monster that howls to the moon and eats humans, so whenever you stumble onto our kind, you attack without a second thought and we simply defend ourselves. The safest place you could be now is with this guy. I’m off to check Hae.” And saying that, the uratha left, leaving Kevin stunned.

“Take your time to think. Being here you’re one of my protégés, so rest assured, you’ll be fine.” Daroll then said. Kevin nodded at those words and decided to just watch before taking any sides.

And he watched the vampires helping the hurt werewolf. He watched as the vampires left to destroy the hunters’ hideout and then asked if he could go and see for himself the humans that lived with vampires and that were being taken care by the other werewolves in their own territory. Kevin tagged along and soon found out the humans under Daroll’s care indeed seemed to love those supernatural beings and had been treated well. So he accepted to stay and become a blood doll. Even he knew that that would be much better than the uncertainties of living on the streets again.

Meeyon had woken up alone, dragging herself to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She tried to focus on her daily routine as to not have to think about the person who wasn’t around now. With a sleepy head she dragged herself through breakfast, a morning shower, school preparations and the rest of the school day. When she came home later that day, she was once again exhausted, more mentally than physically, but she knew Jia would come by, so she prepared something nice for dinner and waited up for him.

Around seven that evening her doorbell rang. She got up from her couch, turning off the TV she had been blankly staring at and moving to open the door. There was a polite smile on her face and she curiously peered out to see what her guest would be like. She saw Henry and two extremely tall, skinny and gorgeous guys standing outside. Only one of them was not deadly pale, and he seemed to be in slight pain.

“Evening, Henry. Come in,” she said, smiling at the other two as well so that they wouldn’t feel unwelcome. Her eyes took in the human, trying to see exactly where or how he was hurt. When he walked by her, however, she suddenly realised he was about a head and a half taller than her, barely fitting underneath the door. Okay, perhaps that was an overstatement, but he definitely was tall.

“Night, Meeyon, this is Chungyeol hyung and Jia. He came to inspect the house.” Henry greeted, while the other tall vampire looked around and then nodded.

She smiled, closing the door behind them and then preceding them to the living room, where she offered them something to drink. Jia accepted, but the other two just looked weirdly at her.

She made a face at Henry, before lifting her hand at him. “Want a drink?” she repeated, grinning then and quickly setting for the kitchen to get Jia a glass of water. When she came back with it, she took a seat herself too. “So what’s the whole idea about this now?”

“You feed him and keep him warm. Once the battle is over I’ll pick him up.” the tall vampire guy spoke and then sent her a smirk. “My name is Kim Chungyeol, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Chungyeol,” she replied. “Pretty sure you know, but in case you don’t; I’m Meeyon.” She sent a smile his way, before focusing her attention on Jia. “Where are you hurt exactly?” she then asked.

“My back. I got burned when I tried to run... I was in the garden when they barged in.” Jia smiled her way. “I’m medicated and in two days I’ll be able to drink Chungyeol’s blood again so I’ll heal faster by then.” the guy explained. She nodded in understanding, before suddenly realising something.

“Wait... You drinking Chungyeol’s blood? Isn’t it like… The other way around? What...” she then stammered, confused.

The three guys chuckled. “Chungyeol says my blood is not tasty.” Jia joked and Chungyeol huffed.

“Well you’re safe, so I’ll go talk with Soohwan to decide how we’ll wipe the weeds from the land.” Chungyeol waved and vanished, which made Henry laugh.

“Humans can drink vampire blood. Actually we can make our bite painless and by licking the wound it heals. So when we hunt our preys, they usually think later that the encounter was a weird dream or don’t remember it at all. Sometimes we get attached to a certain human and to keep him near we either turn them into a vampire or we give them our blood. Humans that drink our blood are called Blood Dolls. They gain strength and agility for a short amount of time and also stop aging. Jia here is much older than all the werewolves you know.” Henry explained. Meeyon stared at Jia hearing all that.

“So my boyfriend could be my grandfather’s grandfather and my guest could have lived in the middle ages?” she then said.

They both chuckled again. “Something like that,” Henry waved. “I could be your father, compared to the rest of my coven, I’m really young.” He batted his eye lashed at her.

“Sorry for intruding your life, Meeyon-ssi.” Jia bowed his head to her. “And thank you for letting me stay here. Probably one of the wolves will be around to keep guard since Henry has been hurt too.” He smiled at her.

Immediately her eyes darted to Henry. “You’re hurt too? What happened?” she asked worriedly, getting up already to fuss over him.

“I was burned too but they almost managed to cut my head off. The only way to really kill a vampire is taking off our head or burning us to ashes. Yes, the sun hurts too and very much, but we have our way to deal with it. Older vampires can endure the sun if they do a certain ritual. I’m healing faster, so it’s ok. I’m perfectly fine,” Henry assured with a smile, but then he happily chuckled. “It’s good to talk to a human not related to us.”

She fussed over him anyway, making sure he really was looking okay, before retreating back to her place on the couch. “What’s so good about that?” she then asked. “I feel stupid, hardly knowing anything.”

“Except for you feeling stupid, exactly that. You don’t treat us as monsters and you actually want to know about us... It feels good,” he explained smiling widely. She made a face, but then smiled anyway. The next moment a new memory popped to mind, so she turned to Jia.

“I put new sheets on the bed, it should be comfortable enough for you to sleep there. Do you need some cream or something against your burns or do you magically heal as well?” she said. “Cause if that’s the case, I don’t think I’d mind having a bottle of vampire for myself.”

“Right now I’m a little like any average human, I’ll need the creams to relieve the pain, but once I drink Chungyeol’s blood, I’ll heal magically as you said.” Jia chuckled.

“I don’t think Yeonghae would like that. The urathas don’t really like the fact that we have Blood Dolls... but Yeonghae has always been jealous of Younghyun so maybe he would accept you having a vampire sweetheart.” Henry eyed her maliciously.

She immediately turned to Henry, sending him a grin. “Are you offering?” she then asked, her voice playful.

“Only if I don’t get Yeonghae’s pack on my back and break our alliance.” Henry grinned and Jia messed his hair. “Henry here, Sungmin and Nina are the only ones that don’t have a fixed blood doll.” the taller teased.

“And I’m the only one here without a bottle of vampire. It’s a match made in heaven!” she retorted, sending a grin Henry’s way. The next moment she had to hide a yawn behind her hand, however, and closed her eyes for a moment, tiredness visible on her face.

“Don’t hold back, Meeyon-ssi, humans need to sleep.” Henry smiled eyeing both of them, “Jia needs to rest too. Let’s get you both to bed.” he stood up and looked at one then the other.

She looked up when he said her name, a sad smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. “You should rest indeed, Jia-ssi. I’ll show you where the bed is and such. Do you need anything like toothpaste or towels?” she then asked, her voice a tone of bright and happy that didn’t fit her appearance.

“Younghyun will bring all I need tomorrow morning,” Jia smiled.

“This is not a super epic battle Meeyon, cheer up.” Henry walked to give her a hug, after taking care of her months ago he learned she liked hugs. The moment the hug was offered to her, she took it willingly, wrapping her arms around Henry and resting her chin on his shoulder.

“I still can’t help but to feel nervous,” she then said, sighing softly. “It feels like something’s not right.”

“Hey... Everything will end all right. Yeonghae has a very good reason to come back,” Jia assured her. “So can you show me where I can sleep? Tomorrow we can keep chatting.”

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry.” she immediately piped up, pulling free from Henry’s embrace and leading Jia to the bedroom. “If you’re thirsty over night, you know where to find the fridge, right? Please act as if you’re at home. Do not feel shy to go anywhere or wake me up if you can’t find something.” She smiled at him politely.

He nodded happily and followed her. She helped him settle down and then went to have her own share of sleep, Henry guarded them from the shadows and soon another day started.

When she woke up the next morning Younghyun was there talking with Henry. She tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes, dragging her tired body up from the couch and stumbling to the kitchen to make breakfast. Routines were needed to keep her mind off of other things, she kept telling herself, so she completely ignored the two vampires as she started on the rice, making enough to feed Jia as well.

Younghyun huffed. “Good morning, Yeonghae’s pet. I bring good and bad news. What do you want first?” he messed her hair and then sat on the table.

“Just talk and I’ll process in about half an hour exactly what you’ve said to me,” she replied, putting plates and chopsticks on the table while the rice cooker did its job.

“I’ll start with the bad ones then; Yeonghae got shot with a silver bullet and the hunter leader managed to escape. Chanhyeok said he is your brother. Good ones: Yeonghae is fine and the wound was not serious so he will be back tonight. We managed to destroy their hideout there and erase all their databases. We also did the same with their hideout here, so if your brother still wants to come after us, he will have to wait a long time. Unless we find and eliminate him first. Please understand we will have to kill him...” Younghyun spoke slowly not looking at her but watching Jia as he sleepily walked into the kitchen.

“I think that last one should have been said in the bad news part.” The human commented. She nodded to everything as she prepared the meat, looking up as Jia walked in. “Good morning, Hyunbaby.” The tall guy mused.

“Don’t call me that, hyung.” Younghyun groaned in annoyance.

“Jia-ssi, I made us breakfast, so I hope you’re hungry.” Meeyon said then, taking the rice out of the cooker and putting both the rice and the pan with meat on the table.

“I’m going back, I didn’t feed today yet,” Younghyun stood up and messed Henry’s hair on his way. “See you, Yeonghae’s pet!” he called out, before vanishing, leaving the other guys looking at her. She mumbled some goodbye after Younghyun, picking up her chopsticks and starting to eat.

It was when the second piece of meat disappeared that she looked up at Henry. “My brother?”

Jia looked from his food to Meeyon and then to Henry who nodded. “Your brother.”

“Are they sure?” she mumbled, stuffing another bite into her mouth.

“Chanhyeok said he had a small chat with Yeonghae, so I’m pretty sure they are sure.” Henry replied while Jia kept eyeing them curiously.

“He’s going to come for me then,” she hummed, nodding slightly and swallowing her next bite, hardly even chewing it.

“We already expected something like that, so it may not be safe for Jia to stay here. That’s what Younghyun said, Chungyeol will come in two hours to pick him up. What will you do?” Henry asked and Jia stared at her.

“I have to go to school.” she replied, obviously not really paying attention.

“Today is Saturday.” Henry raised an eyebrow.

“Is it?” She looked up at him, then to her calendar, and suddenly panic welled up in her, but she didn’t let it show on her face. “I think I might faint.” she then randomly commented, putting down her chopsticks and lifting her trembling hands to look at them.

“Hey, hey, hey. Meeyon!” Henry panicked and asked Jia to call Sunhi or someone from the werewolves. “I know it’s bad...extremely bad news, but you can always make your own choices. Calm down ok?” Henry was holding her in a blink of an eye and Jia stumbled over his chair in search for the house phone.

She was pulled against a chest, closing her eyes and trying to calm down by the comfortable warmth, but it was not there, because Henry was not a werewolf. Henry was not Yeonghae. She sobbed then, a mere release of breath without tears, but the next one was held back before it could struggle out. Two moments later she stood up straight again, no sign of anything on her face as she turned to her plate to continue eating.

Jia was in the middle of calling Sunhi when Meeyon told him it was not needed and so he went back on his words, telling them it was okay after all. She apologised to her guest for making him worry like that and let him finish his breakfast while she went to go get dressed and all that. The moment all her morning activities were done, she started on the cleaning, afraid her composure would break again if she sat still for a moment.

Jia was using a humid clothe to clean the shelves, Henry was doing the laundry – because they insisted on helping – and Meeyon was mopping the floor when the doorbell rang, an hour after they stated on the house chores. She looked up in surprise, but then put aside the cleaning utensils and walked up to the door, drying her hands on her pants before opening. The person in front of her was not the one she wanted to see, but it was the one she had dreaded to see; her brother, cleanly washed with a polite smile on his face.

“Hey, little sis.” he spoke and she felt her blood turn into ice.

“Hello, oppa,” she replied, as normal as she could. “What brings you here?”

He shrugged. “Just a visit. Here, it’s nothing much, but I thought it was appropriate.” he then said, reaching out a small box to her. When she took it and looked at it, she glanced right at a few chocolate cookies with colourful writing on them, nicely spelling out the word ‘sorry’ for her. She couldn’t help but smile slightly, looking back up at her brother. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about... Do you happen to have time?” he then continued, sounding so much like his old self that for a moment she really couldn’t imagine him killing anything.

“We were in the middle of cleaning, but sure, come in.” she replied, smiling softly. Yet her brother’s eyes became wary and he peeked inside past her.

“We?” he echoed, his voice questioning.

“Yes. Henry, Jia and me. They came by and forced me to let them help, so now they’re dusting the living room.” she replied, smiling just as friendly still, but once again she had frozen inside. Her brother obviously did not like the idea of her having company. Perhaps he thought Yeonghae might have been there? Her mind was running marathons as she preceded her brother to the living room. “Sit down, do you want something to drink?” she meanwhile said, acting as if Henry and Jia’s presence wasn’t anything to be nervous of.

But of course, her brother was the one to almost kill Henry and one of his mates was the one to burn Jia’s back so when he walked inside he met eyes with Jia and then Henry came from the kitchen saying the clothes were nicely waiting to be ironed. The silence was too much to bear.

Minki immediately grabbed hold of his sister’s wrist, pulling her against him and wrapping his arm around her middle, the other one holding a gun coming seemingly out of nowhere, not pointed at her, however, but at her two guests.

“Oppa, what are you doing?” she questioned, turning in his grip to look at him, eyes wide in wonder. He only glanced at her, but upon seeing her face, seemed to relax a little.

“Meeyon there’s things you don’t know...” he spoke softly and she felt something obstruct her throat as she listened to the worry, the sadness and the regrets in that voice. “These people they are not...”

“Human?” she choked out, completing his sentence. That was enough to make him look at her, though, momentarily forgetting his two enemies.

Henry moved swiftly and putting himself in front of Jia as saying he would protect him even if the human was taller than him and still an easy target.

Jia dared to talk at that. “You don’t know what you’re doing. The ones you’re fighting right now are not your enemies.” His words made her brother look up at them again, re-aiming his gun, anger visible on his face. But Meeyon put a hand on his arm, trying to pull it down.

“Oppa, don’t.” she said and her brother seemed to remember what made him stop earlier.

“You know?” he asked, looking at her again, disbelief in his expression. She nodded slowly.

“Of course I know. Yeonghae is my boyfriend, you think he would not tell me something like this and just pretend everything’s normal? He’s not like that, oppa,” she repeated, sighing softly and pulling his arm further down as the strength seemed to leave him.

“You know and yet you still... You let them in your house? He is your boyfriend?” His words were soft, layered with disbelief, shock, hurt. She nodded in answer, easily taking hold of the gun and slipping it out of his strengthless hand.

“There will be no fighting in my house,” she then said, before looking at Henry and Jia. “You two either. Oppa, you can leave now and I will make them let you go, but don’t ever come back. I know you won’t change your opinion about them, so I’m not even going to try and explain. You want them death, I am on their side. This is where our ways part. Whatever they do to you from now on is out of my range.” She easily stepped out of his grip, walking up to the table. “I’m sorry it had to end this way, oppa. Please go now.”

He stared at her, then turned to look at Henry and Jia. Suddenly his anger flared up and if he had still been holding his gun, he probably would have shot them, despite her words. All he could do now was point. “You,” he hissed. “You and those filthy dogs have put this in her mind. I don’t know what you did to make her believe you, but you’ll pay for this.” He attacked then, with nothing but his bare hands, and for the first time in her life, Meeyon screamed.

Henry hissed and Jia took a step back because he would be no help. The vampire merely stepped aside when her brother sprinted in his direction, moving like the wind and forcing the guy against the floor, firmly holding his hands on his back. “She said: no fighting in her house. You tried to kill me and you hurt Jia and Jihoon. You have hurt a vampire and two HUMANS. We are no monsters. True, there are others around the world who deserve to be killed, but our clan and Yeonghae’s family only want the humans’ well being. If you want to fight the supernaturals, then try to learn who should be targeted first. I’m not going to hurt you for Meeyon’s sake, but keep your manners.”

Henry pulled the guy up then, pushing him away a few steps. To that, Minki turned around immediately, ready for a second attack, but the all too familiar click of a gun made him stop and look up. Meeyon was there, pointing his own gun at him, but a moment later turning and pointing it at Henry, before turning and pointing it at him again.

“I said no fighting in my house,” she stated calmly. “I also said leave now and never come back.” There was a decisiveness in her words that made him realise she was not as innocent as he thought she was and he straightened up. He stared at her for a long time, just looking, burning her features into his memory, before he slowly walked up to her, taking the gun out of her hands and walking past her, to the door. He didn’t look back as he stepped out, didn’t look back as he walked down the hallway, didn’t look back as he left the apartment building.

In the middle of the living room, Meeyon stared at her empty hand, before turning away and taking hold of her mope again to continue cleaning the floor – as if nothing ever happened.

“Meeyon,” Henry called with a very low and softy voice, almost pleading for her to look at him. “I’m really sorry.”

But she didn’t look up, didn’t do anything other than moping, going over a shining floor that was already wet, cleaning the whole living room again, as if that could clear away what had just happened there. Henry eyed Jia and both shrugged. When she finished with the living room, she went on to the rest of the house, and when all the floors were moped, she started ironing the laundry. Keeping busy, keeping moving, not once letting her composure down.

In the middle of the afternoon the doorbell rang again. Jia had retreated to the bedroom and Henry had stayed there with him. When the sound reached them they already knew who was outside so they both walked out of the room and just watched as Meeyon opened the door. She sent a polite smile, told the people to come in and then walked off again, going back to hanging up the clean laundry so it could dry.

Yeonghae eyed Henry and Jia for he expected a very different welcome from Meeyon. When the vampire said her brother had showed up, Yeonghae felt something heavy in his stomach as he asked them to have a safe trip back to their territory. Chungyeol patted his shoulder and made a head movement for Henry and Jia to go with him. To that the two shouted a goodbye to Meeyon and waited a moment in hopes of a reply.

She called a faint “goodbye” back from wherever she was busy at. The youngest vampire smiled sadly, for at least she had replied, and then left behind Jia and Chungyeol who would help him hide from the sun.

Yeonghae closed the door behind them and sat on the couch to wait for her to have any time or attention for him. He rested his head on the backrest and looked at the ceiling, whishing once again he had never morphed in that fateful gibbous moon.

But when she walked into the living room, it was just to settle something, move something, clean something that was already clean. She moved to the kitchen later to make food and when it was ready she put a plate for him too. She sat down on her chair and took hold of the spoon to give them their portions, but the moment she lifted a spoonful of rice out of the pot, the spoon slipped through her fingers and fell back into the pot with a lot of noise, and all she did was stare at it, as her hands started trembling.

Yeonghae only moved at that sound, standing up and going to the kitchen, he then pulled her into his embrace, with no words, just wanting her to calm down and tell him what she decided after thinking of what had happened.

She composed herself again, having stopped her hands from trembling, but then she was pulled against a chest again, and this time it WAS warm, it WAS Yeonghae. It took her only half a second to lose her control, breaking down and starting to sob. She wrapped her arms around him, pressed herself against him, inched as close as possible and even closer, crying out her pain, her fear, her disbelief. Everything that had happened that day suddenly, finally, finding a way out.

“Meeyon... I know you want to be strong and I know you don’t want anyone to help you stand, but every time you ignore me I feel so useless, so empty. I’m not asking for you to share each and every worry you have with me, but at least come to me when you want to cry. The choice is always yours, whether you want me around you or not. We agreed we are not going to hunt your brother unless he attacks us again.” he spoke slowly and in a very low whisper.

She listened, but was unable to answer, clinging to him as if her life depended on it. And somehow, she realised, it did. She needed him now to live. Her words at the start of their real relationship weren’t lies. If he should die, she would follow him without a single doubt. That realisation calmed her down for some weird, twisted reason and she was able to breathe more normally, letting go of him with one arm to wipe her face. Yet she still didn’t speak, simply wrapping her arm around him again and closing her eyes, occasionally sniffing.

He breathed in her scent and just kept cuddling her. The wound in his shoulder made him loosen his embrace so he wouldn’t send so much tension to it. Fortunately it was the second day of his moon and it would take only two more nights for the pain to vanish completely. He was thankful for the silver bullets that were a little less harmless to his kind, and even more for the particular one that had hurt him to be made of impure silver.

When Meeyon finally spoke to him, it was nothing more than a whisper, her voice crooked and broken. “I pointed a gun at my brother.”

He loosened his embrace completely and looked at her. “He must have done something extreme for you to act extreme. Hunters are dangerous, blind humans. If we could open your brother’s eyes we would have no reason to fight.” he cupped her face in his hands and smiled tentatively at her.

“He was going to attack Henry and I couldn’t... I couldn’t watch him get hurt like that. He thought I didn’t know… He thought I didn’t know about you,” she mumbled, her words sounding weak and fragile to her own ears. She changed subjects then. “Are you alright? Younghyun said you got shot, is it bad?”

He shook his head. “I’m sure Henry wouldn’t hurt him in front of you. He likes you and wouldn’t do anything to hurt you,” He pulled her hand and put it on his right shoulder, where the bullet had penetrated his flesh. “The wound is closed. It stings a bit and will hurt for a few days but it’s far from being grave.”

She followed her hand with her eyes, feeling nothing out of the ordinary on his shoulder and feeling glad because of it. With the sleeve of her sweater, she dried her face once more, to make sure she didn’t look like a drenched puppy. When she reassured herself that everything was alright, she looked up at his face, lifting the hand on his shoulder to softly touch his cheek, make sure he was really there, really alright. There was a distracted look in her eyes, as if she was looking at him but not seeing him.

He smiled softly and leaned in, touching the tip of her nose with his. “I’m not sure if it’s ok for me to stay here... It’s my moon and I have less control over my wolf self. I don’t want to unintentionally hurt you but I don’t want to leave you alone either. Should we take the risk?” His voice was still soft, but this time laced in something not even he knew what.

Instead of answering she leaned in, brushing past the contact of their noses and turning her head a little so she could press their lips together. As always, she stopped once their skins touched, her eyes closed, breathing in his scent.

“I’ll take that as a take the risk. Do you want to go take a shower or do you want to eat?” he questioned as he took his distance again. But she pulled him back then, pressing her lips on his again and this time leaning in more, offering to deepen the kiss.

He felt surprised to say the least, and suddenly he felt afraid of what was behind that. Despite all that, his body moved on its own, however, and he pulled her closer to him. But as he had nibbled her lower lip he concentrated all he could to stop and take his distance again. He wanted her kisses but that one tasted to him as despair, and that was not the taste he wanted. She let him take a distance, but not a big one.

“Please don’t reject me,” she whispered, her eyes on his, her breath ghosting on his skin. “I need you right now, please don’t reject me.” She kept looking at him, not moving in, waiting for him to realise that she needed him to calm her racing heart down, that she needed him to still the strong current of her feelings.

He took in a deep breath of her scent and leaned in, taking her lips with his and really kissing her for the first time, letting her tell him when she had enough and planning to deal with his feelings later.

At first she kissed back desperately, her hands curled into his shirt, leaning in so close she would have disappeared into his chest if it was possible. But as the kiss continued, she relaxed, taking a moment to breathe and then pecking him on the lips again, smiling against his lips and resting her cheek against his after.

“I’m sorry,” she then mumbled, before letting out a content sigh. “Thank you.”

He just held her against his chest, caressing her hair to control his emotions. He was confused, extremely confused. He knew she loved him, but at the same time he could hardly feel it. Sometimes he couldn’t feel her love and at those times he felt empty. He wondered what he could do so that she could simply love him openly, what he could do to make her drop her defences. He felt hopeless, as all he could see was her taming her love and at the same time his.

“Meeyon, I love you,” What was he expecting? What was he hoping for? She stilled in his arms as he said that, opening her eyes and staring at his shoulder for a moment, but then she relaxed again, pulling back a little.

“I know, sweetie,” she said, stroking his cheek and looking at him for a moment. “Let’s eat and go to bed, okay?” There were different things she had wanted to tell him, but only that line managed to get out, her smile sad as she pulled back a little more to walk to the table.

He tried to ignore the growing pain as he took his seat and served their share. He ate but he didn’t taste the food. He had now realised that she only ‘needed’ him.

They cleaned the dishes and then he asked to take a shower, borrowing a towel and disappearing inside the bathroom. She watched him go, watched the door close behind him, shutting him off from her. She stared at the closed door for a moment, before walking into the living room and grabbing the phone. It hurt her that she needed a moment to remember Simon’s number, pushing the keys and holding the phone to her ear then.

“Simon speaking,” he greeted from the other side of the line after a few seconds.

“Sam..” she greeted him back, suddenly sounding so much more vulnerable and hurt than she had planned.

“Meeyon? What happened?” his voice turned worried instantly.

“I’m hurting Yeonghae again, Sam,” she mumbled, the rest of the day already blurring away in her fear of what was going on between them. “How do you do it, this love thing?”

“How do I do it? There’s no how, Meeyon, you simply do... Or do you think you don’t actually love him?” Confusion took over his tone as she heard him excusing himself and going somewhere less noisy. He was probably watching the news with his parents and was excusing himself back to his room.

“Of course I love him, but I can’t...express it?” she stammered. “You know how awkward I am with people, let alone with guys. I hug everyone, but I don’t know how to show Yeonghae that I love him. He emanates that feeling whenever he’s around me, but I don’t think I do the same. Although it feels like it to me, I don’t think he notices it or feels it,” She stared blankly at the turned off TV as she spoke, trying to find a way herself to fix whatever was wrong with her. “You know me, Sam, you know that I love you, care for you, but he doesn’t seem to and I don’t know how to make it clear.”

“I have no idea... I mean I don’t know how exactly you interact with him. You hug everyone, sure, but I bet you only kiss him right?” He sighed. “Well... To tell you the truth sometimes you feel really cold. First of all don’t push him away. Every time you feel troubled you lock yourself inside you and ignore the world...” Suddenly he went silent. “Please, tell me you share your problems with him?”

“I ..do?” she offered, but her tone was questioning. “I told him about what went wrong today!” She was silent for a moment, before sheepishly admitting; “Kind of...”

Simon sighed. “You’re hopeless. You’re so good giving advice to others... Remember what you told Sunhi? Every time we meet she bombards me with questions. She makes sure I am safe and that I understand her. I too question her whenever I get curious of something. Like today when she came to tell me the fight was over and everybody was all right. If you want, I’ll be a spy for you; I’ll ask Sunhi what Yeonghae says about you. But seriously, when you feel troubled, share your thoughts with him. You have to find your own way to let him see your feelings. That’s what you want right?”

She swallowed, before closing her eyes. “Yes,” she then said. “I don’t want him to hurt needlessly like this. But it’s so hard for me to share my thoughts... Whenever I try, I just block and something totally different comes out.”

“Well you certainly won’t change from water to wine just in one day, but do try. Right foot in front of left foot, left foot in front of right foot, that’s how you walk right? There’s one thing Sunhi made me understand about this attraction we feel. Yeonghae will never stop loving you, no matter how much you hurt him, but he will give up on you eventually if he feels he is not the right one for you. Do remember that Meeyon. No pressure really.”

She chuckled then, because it was some way to release the tension inside of her. “Yeah, no pressure really...” she agreed. “Thanks Sam... Oh, and if you see my brother; he’s a hunter, be careful around him. If ever he attacks again, they have to kill him. I’ll hang up now. Thanks for helping me, Sam.” She hung up like that, leaving him with the same kind of mindblowing information as he had given her. She put the phone down on the table and got up then, planning to check if Yeonghae was done showering yet.

When she entered the room, Yeonghae was in front of the mirror inspecting his new scar, a little circle right under his clavicle and up the spatula. It was still bright red, a lingering of silver in the centre. He was applying some kind of oil on it.

She walked up to him, hugging him from behind and pressing a kiss on his unhurt shoulder. She looked at his body through the mirror then, watching the many scars spread out over it. She had never looked at him before like that; really looking and not just glancing in his direction. There were more than she had imagined there to be, and some of them looked more frightening than the actual wounds probably had done. She lifted one of her hands from around him to touch one of the scars on his chest, trailing it with her finger to feel the rough texture of his skin.

“That one was before I met you.” Yeonghae informed, his tone calmer but at the same time a little distant.

She nodded, looking at it a moment longer before trying to catch his gaze through the mirror. “Yeonghae, we need to talk,” she then said.

“I’m listening,” he nodded, pulling her away gently and doing some exercise with his injured arm. His expression turned slightly painful because of it.

She watched him with sad eyes, remembering Simon’s words that he would leave her if he thought he wasn’t right for her, and noticing the distance Yeonghae seemed to have put between them – literally and figuratively speaking. She was afraid of that distance, afraid he would walk out on her one day, suddenly be gone one morning, thinking he was doing it for her good. It was that fear that got her to finally open her mouth.

“Do you think I love you?” she asked him, hoping he’d give her an honest answer and not something to brush it off.

He looked at her for a moment. “Sometimes I do, sometimes I doubt it.”

She felt her heart clench as he confirmed her fears, wanting to tell him to always believe it was like that, but knowing that would not be enough. She felt tears in her eyes, but blinked them away, trying to think of what to do next, what to say next, to make him understand how she felt.

“Actually today I had whole new realization. I’m something you need.” he continued slowly. At those words she felt confused, but hoping to get more of an explanation for that, she waited to see what else he would say. “So I’d say you have you own way to love me. You just love yourself much more than you love me and sometimes it makes me feel unwanted.” He looked away from her, praying he was not hurting her but actually wanting her to understand what he was feeling.

She blinked, repeated those last words in her mind and then frowned. “What do you mean, I love myself much more?” she questioned then, voice soft.

“Whenever you’re troubled, you think of yourself first and act on your own, not minding the ones around you. Like the first time I went on a fight; you protected yourself from my love because you were scared of it. You did it again today, so it’s like, right now, I’m something like water or food, something you need, not necessarily something you want.” he explained, moving his hand to touch the particular scar caused by the silver dagger used against him back then. It had almost ended his life if it weren’t for Younghyun pulling him back when it was halfway in.

She wanted to nod, turn and run, but that would be doing exactly what he said; first thinking of herself. So instead she kept standing where she was, despite her eyes filling with tears again.

“I can’t deny that I need you, but it’s not because I need you that I don’t want you,” she protested, her voice shaky. “I just don’t... can’t... communicate with people the right way. It’s very hard for me to tell you what goes on in my mind. Perhaps I do love myself too much and I try to protect myself against being hurt, but the last thing I want is hurting you in that process,” She wiped away the tears that started running over her cheeks, but didn’t let the fact that she was crying stop herself from talking. Not this time. “The idea that you think I do not love you hurts me more than anything.”

“Then fight against your self-defence and let me feel I’m something you want. Because it hurts. It hurts much more than any wound caused by silver could, when I feel that the love between us is not completely mutual.” At that Yeonghae broke down as well, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

She immediately moved up to him the moment he started crying, cupping his face and wiping his tears away. “Don’t cry,” she whispered, although she was doing the same herself. “Don’t cry, sweetie, don’t cry,” She pulled him into a hug then, needing to have him close, to make sure she hadn’t lost him yet. “I will try, I will definitely try to fight against my self-defence, but I can’t promise it’ll work. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this, any of this. I’m not used to these feelings, these worries.” She was standing on her toes, her arms wrapped around his neck, her cheek resting against his, wanting desperately for him to have no reason to cry. “Don’t cry...” she whispered again.

He held her back, not minding the pain in his shoulder; that was nothing in his point of view. “I’d do anything in my power for you, Meeyon. I will try to be there whenever you need me, I want to be both the one you need and the one you want, because that’s what love is. Love is when you can’t distinguish between the two,” He tried to make her look at him. “Just tell me I’m halfway there so I’ll always have an encouragement to come back.”

“Why are you talking nonsense about halfway?” she asked, a choked laugh following her words as the tears still ran down her cheeks. “You are already there, Yeonghae, so please always come back, because I need you and I want you and I love you, and please don’t ever feel the need to cry again.”

He smiled over her words, but more than once she had shattered his convictions, so this time he engraved those words to remind himself later if she would ever surrender to her self-defence again. She loves him just the way he loves her, she’s just bad at communicating.

He kissed her neck as a silent plea. She smiled too at that, slowly letting go of his neck to be able to sink back down on her feet. She used her sleeve again to dry her tears, sniffing and chuckling at the same time.

“I feel so stupid right now, I’m pretty sure I look like the monster of Loch Ness or something...”

“You’re looking like someone who just overcame herself and won, even if just one little battle,” He pulled her hands away from her face and leaned in, using her own words from earlier: “Please don’t reject me.” He pressed his lips on hers then.

And she didn’t. She kissed him back, even, leaning in and silently asking for permission to deepen the kiss again. But this time the entrire moment was soft, their feelings being put in the brush of their lips and the touch of their tongues. There was no rush. He wrapped one arm around her middle and the other rested on her neck. It was not a possessive touch, no pressing her against him, just some indication he wanted that moment to last longer.

When they parted, Yeonghae pulled her up in his arms and walked to the bed, gently laying her down and taking his space next to her so they could keep cuddling. At last his heart was at peace. She chuckled when he put her down, turning to him and patting his head. “Sweetie, I still need to change,” she told him, amused.

He shook his head. “I want to cuddle,” he pouted, pulling her closer.

“But if you let me change, there’ll be less in the way to cuddle,” she countered, not protesting however when he pulled her closer. “Like this thick sweater.”

Immediately he released her. “Be fast, please,” he pouted cutely.

She chuckled. “Oh so you like it when I’m wearing less clothes?” she teased, not moving away yet and instead even wrapping her arms around him now.

“Yes I like you better with fewer clothes. It’s less hot in some way, and hotter in another.” He grinned at that. She snorted, muzzling her face against his neck. She lay like that for a moment before getting the idea of biting him, which she immediately did then, a childish grin on her face.

At that he took hold of her arms and pinned her on the bed. “You’re playing with something dangerous, Meeyon. It’s my moon and it’s not safe to make me lose control over my body,” he warned seriously. She looked at him, skipping from his one eye to the other constantly, the grin still on her face.

“Would you mind if I became someone’s blood doll?” she then asked, completely out of the blue.


	5. Waxing Gibbous

“WHAT?!” He shouted and pulled away from her. He stood up, looking at her with astonishment. She chuckled at his reaction, sitting up on the bed and eyeing him.

“Did that help?” she then asked, grinning again.

“No, it didn’t. I’ll be back in a bit.” Yeonghae was quick, getting out of the room and out of the house. That little question was taboo for him and something that certainly should not be discussed during his moon.

The grin on Meeyon’s face died away as he left, but since he said he’d be back in a bit, she calmly got up from the bed, grabbing her pyjamas from the closet and going to the bathroom to change, brush her teeth and all the other stuff. Once she was finished, she walked back to the bedroom, wondering how long he’d be gone.

Around two hours later he came back, walking back into the bedroom with a sigh, thinking she had already fallen asleep. But she was still awake, sitting up against the headrest of the bed, calmly reading a book. When he entered the room, she looked up at him, sending him a slight smile.

“Did you lock the door again?” she asked calmly, as if he had just gone out for an evening stroll or something. He stopped dead in his track when she asked that, turned around and left her room again, coming back a few minutes later.

She smiled as he left, then calmly waited until he was back. When he walked into the room again, she put down the book, slowly getting up from the bed.

“I’m sorry about that,” she told him, walking up to him, but leaving a slight distance so he could decide if it was safe to touch or not. “I didn’t mean to provoke you.”

He sighed again. “I’m sorry too. But we are against the idea of blood dolls, even if the human gains a lot of things by drinking vampire blood. There’s also risks...” He reached out a hand to cup one side of her face. “There’s a reason why I hardly come to see you on gibbous moons, today is just being a little extra hard.” He sighed again.

She smiled as he apologized as well, stepping closer to him anyway then and resting her head on his shoulder. Just that, no hugging or holding, but only leaning against him.

“What would happen exactly if you should lose control?” she asked softly.

“I could unintentionally kill you...” he replied as softly. “I could lose control and morph into my gauru form… and kill you.” Her smile turned sad at that, feeling apologetic for driving him so far.

“Then for tonight, you tell me what to do and I’ll do nothing more than that.” she answered, still merely standing against him with her head resting on his shoulder.

“Just let me cuddle you and sleep,” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

“I suggest we go lie down for that,” she offered, her grin slowly starting to return again. It felt crazy how she suddenly acted like a happy little kid whenever he was around, but somehow she couldn’t really be bothered by it.

“You can’t sleep standing?” he joked, pulling her up in his arms to take her to bed once more. “Good night.” he offered once they were settled cuddling close.

She put one arm over his middle and wriggled a leg in between his, before happily closing her eyes and resting her head against his chest. “Good night, Yeonghae.” she then replied softly, a smile gracing her features.

When she woke up the next morning, Yeonghae was completely splashed over the bed. She was resting beside him with her head on his chest. He was sound asleep. She had woken up to the sound of her phone ringing, however, so she slowly lifted her head and rubbed her eyes. When the sound kept going, she crawled up, stumbling out of the bedroom and straight to the living room. She picked up the phone then, bringing it to her ear.

“Mornin’” she mumbled, covering a yawn with her hand and shuffling back to the kitchen to start on breakfast. It was only when she reached the pans that she realised she had been a slight bit too late and she was listening to the constant beeping of an empty line. With a sigh, she put the phone down, standing up on her toes to get the rice out of the cupboard.

When the phone rang again moments later, she picked it up again with a frown, but when she heard the beep tone, she suddenly realised it wasn’t the phone ringing but the doorbell. Realising someone was at the door, she immediately walked into the hallway, combing her hair with her fingers to at least look slightly decent and then opening the door, peeking out to see who came up with the strange idea to come by so early on a Sunday morning.

It was her mother coming eye to eye with her, a big smile on her face and a box of chocolates in hand as a gift. She barged in without further ado, handing her the chocolates and looking around.

“Good morning, dear. I’m sorry if I called you out of bed, but it has been such a long time since I visited you and I don’t have time further on in the day. How are you doing? Is everything going fine? How’s Yeonghae?” she babbled away almost immediately, a happy smile on her face. Meeyon closed the door behind her mother, putting the chocolates aside for a moment to take her mother’s coat and hang it away.

“I’m doing fine, mom. Was just about to make breakfast. Will you eat with us? Yeonghae’s fine too; still sound asleep at the moment I’m sure.” she replied, smiling and taking up the chocolates again to bring them to the kitchen. Once there, she quickly put the rice in the cooker, before moving to the living room, where her mother had already taken a seat. The moment she sat down too, her mother spoke again.

“Sound asleep, huh? Did you finally do something more than just sleeping in that nice king-size bed you got yourself?” her mother joked, but Meeyon found herself turning beet red because of the question.

“Mom!” she scolded, her words only making her mother grin wider.

“What? It’s an innocent question, isn’t it? I think I’m allowed to know once the chance on grandchildren exists.” She blushed even harder, getting up again after not having sat for two minutes even.

“How nice of you to visit, mom, but I think it’s time for you to go now.” she deadpanned, making her mother laugh.

“You know I’m just kidding.” the apology then came and she huffed.

“Yeah sure you’re kidding. If it were physically possible you’d stuff the babies down my throat so I’d give you grandchildren. You’re terrible when it comes to that. If you could you’d give yourself grandchildren so you wouldn’t have to wait for me to do it,” she muttered, but it wasn’t meant seriously and her mother didn’t take it as that either. “So are you eating with us mom?” she then changed the subject.

“Yeah, sure, why not? I’d never turn down a chance of having someone else cook for me,” her mother said with a smile. “Should I go wake up Yeonghae for you?” Meeyon frowned at the question.

“I think I can do that myself; if he isn’t awake already with the amount of noise you make. Let me go check,” she retorted. “Feel free to get yourself something to drink.” She walked out of the living room then, making her way to the bedroom. She opened the door softly and stepped inside, closing it behind her again, before looking to see if Yeonghae was awake yet.

“We have to calculate an appropriate date to have babies. I mean, puberty would be a problem with a grandma like that, don’t you think?” Yeonghae grinned at his girlfriend from the bed where he was sitting, his back against the headrest and his legs spread out. “Good morning kiss?” he reached his arms to her.

She huffed, but walked up to the bed anyway, crawling up to him and settling in between his legs. As she leaned in to press her lips on his, she sneakily slipped a hand under his shirt to then tickle his stomach.

“Your mom is just outside the room, don’t make me make her listen to our first make out session. It will happen if you keep teasing me like this.” he said against her lips as he sneaked his hands around her waist. She giggled, pressing another kiss on his lips and pressing her nose against his shortly.

“I’ll remember that for when she’s gone and your moon time is over,” she then said, before adding with a teasing tone; “I thought it were girls getting cranky every month with the right moon, but in our relationship it’s the guy, huh?” With a grin on her face she gave him another peck, not really wanting to leave his arms yet.

“I’ll make sure you remember that on the first night of crescent moon.” He kept on pecking her between his next speech. “I like your mom... but she came to visit on a bad day.”

She giggled again, slowly pulling free from his grip after one last peck on his lips. “You’ve been handling your desires great for the past months, no reason to let go of that hold all of a sudden,” she told him. “I’ll go make breakfast now. Go say hi to my mom when you’re dressed.” She playfully made a kissy face at him, before slipping out of the room again and going to take out the rice, putting in a second portion and preparing the meat.

Yeonghae watched her go and messed his hair in frustration. She really knew how to tame him. He walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth and clean his face. After making sure he was sociable enough, he walked out of the bedroom, crossing the living room and entering the kitchen. “Good morning, mother-in-law, it has been a while.” he smiled and shortly bowed to her.

Meeyon’s mother looked up when she heard Yeonghae’s voice, a bright smile immediately gracing her expression. She got up and walked over to him, pulling him into one of those typical motherly hugs that involve lots of petting and asking you how you’ve been. It was obvious that she totally approved of her daughter’s choice for boyfriends.

He smiled boyishly at her, but commented that his cousins and a few friends had been keeping him busy so he was happy he could spend that night with Meeyon. Obviously implying something else in the ‘spend the night’.

Meeyon almost threw a spoonful of rice in his direction, but since her mother was standing there too, she refrained from the idea. Her mother, however, just hugged him some more before finally letting go, taking her seat at the kitchen table again.

“It seems you’re really close to them, are you not? You talk about them often,” she then said. “Are you friends with them too, Meeyon? “ She turned to look at said person as she asked the question, and Meeyon dutifully nodded.

“Yeah, they’re all really nice people. Chanhyeok’s a good friend of mine too now,” she said. “I should introduce you decently to them once. You’ve only seen them that first day. He’s got a bunch of cool friends too. Especially Henry is really cute. He hugs me all the time which is nice,” she elaborated, easily making it sound as a casual comment, but actually saying it as payback for Yeonghae’s earlier words.

He eyed her with a pout. “What do we have for breakfast, sweetie-yon,” he then asked, eyeing the bowls and clearly trying to change the subject.

“Plain rice for you. Mom and I will have some pork with it.” she retorted, putting the bowls with rice on the table already and soon after finishing the meat as well. When she put that down on the table too, she took a seat herself, immediately serving her mother first and then herself, leaving not a single piece of meat for Yeonghae. Her mother eyed it for a moment, before glancing up at Meeyon.

“Troubles in paradise?” she questioned with a slight amused tone, but Meeyon smiled brightly and shook her head, starting to eat as if nothing was wrong.

Yeonghae pouted again and covered his mouth to not let Meeyon’s mother see what he would mouth to his girlfriend. ‘I’ll go on another epic battle if there is no pork for me!’ For a moment Meeyon seemed unaffected, but she then suddenly pushed her bowl away from her a little and put her chopsticks down.

“Actually I’m not really hungry. You can have mine, Hae. I’m going to get dressed,” she said, getting up from her chair and leaving the kitchen to pick out her clothes for the day and quickly wash up.

He felt bad as he watched her go and played with his chopsticks. That was not exactly the outcome he wanted, especially as they had just overcome a serious matter in between them. Without her there he felt no appetite, so he sighed. Her mother eyed him subtly, a knowing smile on her face. She put her chopsticks down for a moment and crossed her arms on the table, looking at him more openly now.

“Yeonghae-ah...” she said, catching his attention like that. “Tell me something honestly, please... Are you really planning to stick with our dear Meeyon?”

He eyed the woman and replied with the only truth he knew. “For as long as she allows me to stick with her. I love her and this feeling will never change.” Her mother sighed softly, the smile not disappearing as she reached out a hand to put it on his.

“You two look really good together,” she then said, earnestly. “I’ve never seen anyone treat my daughter so lovingly,” There was something else than happiness in her smile as she continued. “I’m asking you as the person who has known her for the longest time; please never let her doubt your intentions, always be honest with her.”

“I can assure you, ma’am, I can’t be more honest with her than what I already am.” he nodded and smiled. The woman smiled back, squeezing his hand softly.

“That’s good to hear, Yeonghae, that’s really good to hear,” she said, letting go then and picking up her chopsticks again. “Now you eat. She’ll be disappointed if she comes back to full bowls. There’s nothing for you to worry about, she’s just getting dressed.” She followed her own words, starting to eat again.

Yeonghae followed her words and had eaten his share of rice and was half way with the pork, mouth full, when Meeyon entered the kitchen again moments later, all washed up and dressed.

She saw them happily eating and smiled, sitting down again and taking her own bowl of rice. “Is it good?” she asked them, taking a bite herself, but stopping again soon after as she really wasn’t that hungry.

Yeonghae eyed her and then her bowl. When he finished the last bite he had left on his, he exchanged their bowls, giving her his empty one and eating her share. He was in healing process so he was allowed to eat more, right? She chuckled when her bowl was taken from her hands. By the time Yeonghae was finished with his second bowl of rice, her mother calmly finished her own portion.

“So tell me...” she said, smiling as she put the bowl down. “Are you two planning to move in together? Since Yeonghae is here probably six days out of seven.” Meeyon frowned at the question, glancing at Yeonghae shortly, before shrugging.

“It’s fine as it is, really... You could say we’re living together already. It’s not like something would really change if we’d make it official.” she replied then, getting up to clear the table since everyone was ready. She got her mother a glass of water since she was up anyway and then gave Yeonghae one too before sitting back down. “How are you and dad doing?” she then asked and her mother smiled.

“Same as always, dear, same as always. Dad’s working hard and I’m being lazy ordering people around,” She grinned shortly. “I just wanted to hop by once to see how you were doing since I haven’t heard from you in a while. I see everything’s going fine, though. I guess I should not be as worried about my daughter as I am.” The grin had turned back into a normal smile and Meeyon smiled as well at those last words.

“Yeah.. There’s nothing to worry about, mom.” she said then, suddenly glancing at the clock. “Oh is it this late already?” she then exclaimed, making her mother look up.

“Oh dear!” she said as well, in quite the same tone. “I should get going! Your father is waiting for me to go bowling with his colleagues. I’ll leave you two to your Sunday then. Thanks for the breakfast, Meeyon. Call me a little more often, I like to know how you’re doing.” She turned to Yeonghae then. “Son-in-law, you make her call me, alright?”

“Roger, ma’am. If she doesn’t, I’ll do.” he smiled and walked to the woman to give her a short hug. He waved then, going to the sink to start the cleaning-after-breakfast. Meeyon hugged her mother as well before sending her off. Once she closed the door, she walked back to the kitchen, immediately hugging Yeonghae from behind and nuzzling her face against his neck.

“Don’t even think about leaving again anytime soon.” she mumbled to him as a late reply to his earlier comment. She pressed a soft kiss on the skin of his neck and then let go again to grab a towel.

“Next time I’ll stay and will make uncle go. Unfortunately we are the only ones under the gibbous moon so I’m like his favourite child and the first he kicks into a fight,” he sighed. “But seriously, our preys could plan a little before attacking... Why always near a full moon? Ah, I know, they rather fight with something they can track and see.” Yeonghae grumped since the irrakas were well known for their abilities of being extra fast and for leaving no traces behind them, walking around like the wind – or better; like living shadows.

She smiled, taking a glass and drying it. When she put it away and turned to take a new one, she suddenly changed her mind. Instead of reaching out for the glass, she reached further, dipping her finger in the sop and cladding some foam on his cheek, an innocent smile on her face as she proceeded to take the second glass after all and dry it like she had done nothing wrong.

“And there she goes, teasing me around the same time the foes want to fight.” He shook his head but then he put some foam on the tip of her nose. She chuckled leaning in and smearing the foam on her nose all over his still clean cheek. She then quickly put the dried glass down and skipped away, a plate in her hands to dry it, but staying out of his reach to not get foamed again.

He eyed her and looked around concentrating on his task of cleaning, he rinsed the last dishes and put it aside for her to dry, but didn’t leave his spot in front of the sink.

She finished the plate, putting it on the table and watching him as he stood at the sink. After a while she started to smile and then she suddenly threw the towel in his direction.

“If you’re going to stand there; make yourself useful and dry the dishes.” she told him with a grin, turning on her heels and walking out of the kitchen, into the living room. But before she reached it, he had walked to her in his almost inhuman speed, holding her with an arm and sprinkling water on her face with his other hand, before kissing her cheek and releasing her again.

She shrieked at the water, but then laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and jumping up to wrap her legs around him too. She pressed a kiss on his lips, before just resting their foreheads together and closing her eyes with a content smile on her face.

“I love you,” she then randomly commented, opening her eyes and pulling back a little to look at him. Saying his eyes were sparkling with joy would be too obvious. He felt his will power to keep restraining himself crumbling fast, but he also knew he couldn’t let it happen, so he decided to give her one last warning. He walked to the living room with her and softly nestled her on the couch, firmly imprisoning her there by laying on top of her and giving a wet kiss on her neck.

“I really love you, Meeyon, and I want to have all of you. I know it’s not the right time yet, but you’re really starting to give me a hard time.” He didn’t move, stilling himself in an attempt to control himself by taking in her scent. Having her like that was something too good, he was getting afraid of seeing it out of his grasp again.

Where she first seemed unsure of what his intentions were, she relaxed after his words, keeping her arms and legs wrapped around him and just hugging him as they lay there. There was a comfortable silence between them while she just held him and nothing more.

She didn’t know how much time passed, but when she found herself slowly dozing off to his body warmth, she opened her eyes and carefully disentangled herself from him, waiting for him to get up so she could sit up as well.

“I’m hungry,” Yeonghae stated but didn’t move at first. Only after a short while did he move just enough to look at her face and take in her relaxed – almost sleepy – features. “Do you want some snacks?” he questioned with a soft smile.

She shook her head. “I’m still full from breakfast. You have something to eat while I clean the dishes,” she told him, rubbing her face with her hands to wake up a little again. “Let’s go out afterwards...” she then suddenly offered. “Let’s go to the zoo.”

“Ok. let’s see the wolves!” he beamed and then chuckled. “Double date or solo date?” he offered, but still didn’t move.

“Mhm solo, I want to spend time with you,” she hummed, pulling him closer to her again since he wasn’t moving away anyway. “Or do I need to have a backup plan in case you decide to start howling to the wolves? Someone to be with me so I can pretend I don’t know you...” she then joked, smiling against his shoulder, her eyes already closed again, ready to fall asleep any moment. He pecked her lips and got up at that without a word.

It felt like he had left just for a second when a kitchen towel fell on her face. She made a protesting sound, reaching up to take the towel from her face and put it aside. But as she curled up to really fall asleep, the lack of his body warmth made her shiver. She opened her eyes then, pouting at nothing in particular and rubbing her face again.

“I think I will use you as my blanket from now on.” she then spoke, not even knowing if he was still around, but it didn’t matter, because he would probably still hear her anyway.

“I’d love to, when I’m not out hunting,” he commented already frying some eggs, the rice cooker working miracles. “We need to buy you more food,” he added, glancing up with a grin.

“Correction; we need to buy YOU more food. There’s more than enough food for me here,” she countered, finally getting up from the couch as well and making her way over to the kitchen again, rather slowly starting on the job of drying the dishes. Once she got the hang of it, it was finished quickly, however, and she was able to watch Yeonghae devour yet another huge portion of food, not even three hours after he had breakfast. She smiled, reaching out a hand and ruffling his hair, before walking past him. “I’ll go check what time the zoo is open.” she spoke as she left the kitchen, pulling her hardly used laptop out of the closet.

She quickly went over opening hours, checking what was allowed inside and what not, before packing a rather elaborated lunch and two bottles of water. They were going to have to buy him more food there anyway, unless the wolves distracted him enough to keep him from thinking of food – but that was wasted hope. Once she was done, she got some better clothes for going out and then it was into the car and out to the zoo.

The trip was nice, to say the least. It felt freeing to be able to walk around, holding hands, sharing cuddles and kisses on the way, without having any worry whatsoever. The animals in the zoo all looked well-fed and happy, it was a sunny day as well, so everything was perfect.

They had their lunch at one in the afternoon on a cute little grassy field with a statue of an elephant on it. They enjoyed just lying in the sun for a bit after lunch, huddled together but not too close as they were in public. She almost fell asleep again there, but got up right before she could, and so they went to walk through the second half of the park.

Luckily Yeonghae didn’t go completely crazy like she had said he would when they reached the wolves. They did stick around longer, but only so she could admire the animals and compare them to the way she knew Yeonghae looked in his wolf form. Her conclusion was that they were impressive, but Yeonghae was a much prettier wolf.

When she told him that, he suddenly blushed, softly inquiring if he was prettier than human males too. Before she could answer that, however, he was already boasting off to the wolves that he was stronger and much more awesome anyway because he was able to shape shift on top of being a pretty wolf.

She laughed, gently dragging him away from the cage so other people wouldn’t give them too many weird looks. When he didn’t want to move at first, she walked off without him and once he noticed that, he quickly rushed after her.

“You’re not prettier than other men,” she told him in reply to his earlier question once he was next to her again. “Like my brother, he has a prettier face than you,” She chuckled over the cute pout he showed at that revelation and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “But you’re more handsome than most.” she then comforted him, watching that pout turn into a happy grin again.

They walked past the other animals too and then left for home again. The day was amazing, she loved how relaxed she felt around him and made a mental note to thank Simon for his advice from the previous day. She made another mental note to watch out once Yeonghae’s moon was over, because she was pretty sure he would not forget how she had been teasing him, despite the obvious danger.

That evening Yeonghae didn’t stay, pointing out it was the last day of his moon before the full moon so he would have to go hunt and make sure his essence level was stable. She felt slightly sad that after such a wonderful day he would leave, but she also understood that it was necessary, so she let him go after another peck on his lips.

Meeyon didn’t see him for another two days, but the next Wednesday when she arrived home, she could smell the dinner being prepared. She unlocked the door, entering the house and kicking out her shoes as usual. She hung up her coat and put her bag aside, putting her feet into a pair of slippers before walking to the kitchen.

“What’s for dinner?” she asked with a smile, leaning against the doorpost, looking at him.

“Some of this, some of that. Basically Yeonghae’s awesome cooking. Welcome back, love.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke but kept on cooking. She chuckled, walking up to him to press a quick kiss on his cheek.

“I’ll go for a shower first,” she stated, walking right out of the kitchen again and on to the bedroom to get some comfortable clothes to wear over the evening. Her shower lasted only ten minutes, since it was nothing more than refreshing herself, and she soon was back in the kitchen, all clean and ready to have some of Yeonghae’s awesome cooking.

The table was set meanwhile, the bowls already filled with freshly cooked rice and the side dishes looking delicious as always. Yeonghae was already eating, so when he noticed her, he swallowed so he could speak. “Come eat before it gets cold.”

“Thanks for waiting.” she teased, taking a seat and picking up her chopsticks to start eating as well.

“I didn’t get my afternoon snack today... They dragged me to teach the pups about my abilities. We need more wolves under the gibbous moon.” he sighed getting another bite.

She snorted. “Poor dear, not eating a ton of food for once, you must have been starving.” she then mocked, her tone slightly sarcastic. She soon went back to smiling again, though, as the food was really nice and she had no time in between bites to talk. He finished his two shares and then kept watching her with a small smile.

When she finished after eating quite a lot – if you counted with her standards at least, she put down her chopsticks, leaning back in her chair and soon locking gazes with him. She didn’t say anything, just kept looking at him, mirroring his smile.

“What do you want to do?” He questioned with a happy tone, knowing exactly what he wanted to do.

“Not sure...” she mumbled, thinking over his questions. “I should study my classes or I won’t be able to follow anymore tomorrow.”

“Are you ditching me?” he faked to be hurt and then stood up to take the dirty dishes to the sink, obviously expecting her to come and help him with cleaning.

“I’m setting my priorities and right now school is on the first place,” she contradicted him, helping him with bringing the dirty dishes to the sink, but walking away then. “I also still need to study for the test exam I’ll have this Friday or I’ll surely fail,” she informed him, grabbing her bag in the hallway and setting for the living room.

He pouted and muttered some complaints under his breath, but he knew studies were something important in her life. Once the pups got balanced enough they would continue their studies as well and maybe Yeonghae would try another major too.

After the dishes were done, Yeonghae decided to go check what she was studying and see if it was something he could help with. “What is the test about? Maybe I could help you?” He went to innocently sit beside her.

She stuffed one of her books in his hands immediately. “Gunzhounese. Traditional and simplified. The first fifty pages of this book by tomorrow, the exam will be about the first hundred,” she said, not taking her eyes off the paper she was scribbling her wannabe Gunzhounese on. He took a quick look at the book and started reading it for her out loud, the words coming out fluent like it was his mother language.

For a moment her pen stopped moving, but then she continued, listening to him as well as writing out her smommyry of what she had already learned before. But when she was about three sentences further, she sighed.

“Okay this is not working. I don’t know how I’ll be able to get all of this in my head by Friday.” she said, the last line slightly desperate.

“Do you want to cheat?” he asked softly – in Gunzhounese – not looking at her but pulling her closer so he could cuddle her. She frowned, deciphering his words and then shaking her head hesitantly.

“It wouldn’t be fair towards the other students...” she mumbled, sighing softly. She hid her face in the crook of his neck, closing her eyes and just enjoying the hug for a moment.

“Then I’ll keep talking in Gunzhounese with you till the test. I’ll ask you questions too. For each correct answer I’ll strip for you.” he teased.

“No you won’t.” she then huffed, still using Socheonian. “And if you will, I’ll give only wrong answers.”

He sighed at that. “Ok. For each incorrect answer I’ll strip, for each correct answer you’ll get a hug.” He continued using Gunzounese.

“Can we just not have you stripping?” she protested, the frown still on her face. “It would make me feel much less apprehensive to try talking Gunzounese.”

He huffed at that. “Fine. Incorrect I’ll kiss you. Correct you’ll get a hug. Is it fine?” he pouted.

“I need to study, not get hugged and kissed whenever I say something,” she blurted out slightly annoyed, picking up her books and getting up. “Can you for once not link everything to your sexist mind?” she added, before walking off towards the bedroom.

He watched her go but after a short moment he stood up and walked to the room. “Can I use your laptop?” he asked softly.

She glanced up from the books only shortly, before continuing her writing. “If you don’t break it,” she retorted. “Because that would be the second one you break and I need my files.”

“Sorry, old habits are hard to die. I won’t break it.” he nodded. He got the device from where she usually kept it and then went to sit on the balcony, out of her sight. His work was silent but after about half an hour he started singing the lines of her text book to himself – in Gunzounese.

She meanwhile studied diligently, writing down the Gunzounese words she had to learn and occasionally testing herself on her knowledge. Yet with every minute she felt guiltier for snapping at Yeonghae, because he certainly did not deserve a reaction like that. She was battling out with herself whether to go to him or not, when she suddenly heard him saying something. Listening more intently, she realised he was singing. Curious about what was going on, she put down her pen, slowly walking up to the balcony doors, but staying inside, listening. He noticed her movement but kept surfing on the internet in search for any possible information that could be useful to his uncle, never once faltering in his singing.

After a while, when she realised it were words from her textbook he was singing, she opened the door wide enough to slip through, silently sitting down next to him and staring at the railing. “I’m sorry.” she mumbled after a while, using Gunzounese herself now. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“No I was pushing you, I was in the wrong as well. I should have helped without putting my wants in between.” he said not taking his eyes from the computer. Still talking in Gunzounese.

She sighed, scooting a little closer and resting her head on his shoulder, trying not to be in the way of him using the computer. She closed her eyes then, leaving a few moments of silence, before speaking again.

“You’ve been wanting for so long and I keep rejecting you...” she whispered, feeling her heart hurt as she said it.

“It never seems to be the right time. There are other things you have to focus on now,” He dismissed her worry looking at her and smiling. “You better go back to studying,” he urged as he pecked her lips and then looked back at the computer screen.

“It’s not that, really... I just keep coming up with things that supposedly are more important,” she sighed, turning a little towards him and slipping her arms around his middle.

“If you’re coming up with things, it means you don’t want it, and if you don’t want it, there’s no meaning.” he spoke with a caring tone.

She leaned on him like that a little longer, letting the silence drag on a while, before finally gathering her courage and fighting her own defences again by admitting: “It’s not that I don’t want it, it’s just... I’m scared.”

“Scared I might lose control? Scared I might hurt you? I think every girl is scared of the first time, I know Sunhi was.” He started closing the pages and switched the computer off making sure he didn’t go to any of the pages that would break it – he had prepared some links beforehand to break the computers he used for his information chase, hence why _his own computer never breaks_.

She sighed. “Scared I’ll suck at it?” she then offered. “Scared it’s going to be totally awkward and ruin a good day...” She chuckled. “Oh gosh it sounds so stupid when I say it like this.” She huddled closer to him and wriggled herself under his arm.

Once the computer was off, he pulled out of her grip and stood up, walking back inside her room. “There’s only one way to know. The question is if you still want to try.” He walked to her wardrobe and placed the computer safely inside, back where she usually kept it, and then walked to her bed to look at her papers. She followed him inside, sitting down on the edge of the bed as he put away the laptop. She gathered her papers, knowing that whatever the evening would be filled with, it wouldn’t be homework or studying anymore.

“Mhm I guess I do. Just that... Well this is even more awkward than anything...” she responded, putting the papers and books on her night table. Once she sat up again, she reached out her hands to him, silently asking for a hug.

He pulled her close and made her rest in between his legs, “How do you say ‘I love you’ in Gunzounese?” he asked softly upon her ear as he lightly squeezed her. She smiled, automatically wrapping her arms around him as well and pressing closer.

“Let’s just cuddle for now,” she mumbled. “It feels too awkward knowing it’s coming,” There was a slight tremble in her voice as she said that. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, unable to stop herself from smiling anyway.

He cuddled her as she had asked, but after a moment he pulled one of her hands up and asked her to compare the sizes. Her hand was a little bit smaller than his, but somehow there was the feeling they fit perfect like that. Yeonghae smiled over that and then entwined their fingers pulling her hand to him to place a chaste kiss on it.

She smiled at him, turning her head a little so she could look at their entwined fingers. It was a nice sight, she decided, something she wanted to be able to see at all times; their hands together, the two of them tied to each other, unbreakable. Or at least that sounded nice to believe.

“I love how you’re so nice and warm,” she mumbled, trying to cuddle even closer to him, as if wanting to wrap herself better into a comfortable blanket. Once she settled better in his arms, she closed her eyes again, smiling and enjoying the warmth.

“I’ll try to come every night then,” was the last thing she heard as she fell asleep, leaving Yeonghae looking over her with a soft smile. “Wo ai ni, Meeyon.” he still whispered even though he knew she wouldn’t hear him.

When Meeyon woke up the next morning, Yeonghae was no longer lying on top of her, but instead sprawled all over the bed again, the back of one of his hands resting against her cheek and one of his legs draped not-so gracefully over hers. She lay still, looking at him for a while, taking in his features. As she was in the middle of admiring his jaw line, she suddenly felt the urge to touch his face again, so she gently pulled away, making his hand drop on the mattress, and then leaned in, trailing her fingers over his jaw. And as she trailed his skin with her fingers, she suddenly felt like waking him up that way. Remembering the things she had teased him with back when it was still his moon, she scooted a little closer, easily slipping a hand under his T-shirt and tickling his stomach.

“Yeonghae, sweetie...” she tried to wake him with a sing-song voice, leaning in to press a kiss on his cheek. That brought only more evil thoughts to her mind, and the next moment she set her teeth in the skin of his neck again, producing a soft growl to wake him up like that.

It was successful, no doubt. Yeonghae stirred and growled himself, letting his hands find her body and bringing it closer to his. He moved his legs to wrap them around her too, ending up looking more like a koala than a wolf. “Meeyon~” he chanted with contentment.

She giggled, pressing a kiss on the skin she had just bitten, before turning her head to press a kiss on his cheek. “Good morning, my gorgeous wolfboy.” she told him, pressing a kiss on his lips then. She continued to place butterfly kisses all over his face, before returning back to his mouth and pressing another kiss there, not pulling away as fast this time.

He took the opportunity to kiss back and hold the back of her head, just so she wouldn’t suddenly pull away. Once the kiss was broken, he started trailing her jaw line with kisses, going to her ear. “Good morning, my gorgeous love.” he whispered seductively, for the hand under his shirt was not telling him to be a good, chaste boy.

She hummed happily when he greeted her that way, letting the hand on his stomach slide up to his chest, thereby also pulling up his shirt a little. She felt his heartbeat under her palm, a steady but strong rhythm. With a smile she pressed another kiss on the skin of his neck, before lifting her head a little to teasingly bite at his earlobe.

“I believe I still owe you a few rewards.” she then mumbled, making it clear that he was allowed this time to take it as far as he wanted by claiming his lips again for a more demanding kiss.

And he didn’t think twice as his hands sneaked under her pyjama top to caress her body. He showered her with kisses and licked her ear and her neck, but soon he got annoyed with all the clothing between them. He motioned for them to undress, to which she complied, leaving him even more eager to pleasure her.

Their touches became more intimate, more demanding and new sounds filled her bedroom once his hands touched her where they had never been allowed before. Both of them knew the theories but being practical was proving to be mind blowing. He tried to be gentle, tried to lead her to find pleasure much faster than him.

It was painful at first for her, even if he did it slowly. He tried to distract her with kisses and caresses, but once he noticed she was trying to keep her volume down due to the pleasure, he begged her to let it out. He wanted to hear her; her indications of enjoying what they were doing would only give him courage to do more. He wanted to hear her moans, they meant he was making her feel good, he was making her enjoy, he loved her.

She complied to his request and also moved her body to match his pace, which made him growl and moan to let her know it gave him pleasure. The sounds he made filled her with accomplishment as much as hers filled him. They both felt complete and united.

It didn’t take long for her to reach cloud nine, and hers trigged his to come right after, both panting because of the effects of their afterglow. He pulled away after a while and kissed her forehead, cuddling her close to him affectionately.

She nuzzled closer as well, contented her fears were proven foolish. The next minutes were spent on catching their breaths and enjoying each other’s warmth. She looked up at the clock on her side table and sighed. “I guess I’m not going to college today,” she then mumbled.

At her statement he pulled her chin up. “Should we go on to second round then?” Before she could reply, he sealed her lips with his, but from that kiss it was clear he was just joking.


	6. Full Moon

It’s safe to say that after that particular day their relationship stepped into a whole new level. Yeonghae was elated to have Meeyon accepting his love and loving him back the way she did. There were times she still surrendered to her self-defences, but just as often she would rely on him and share her troubles.

In the span of four years nothing much changed between them. The bond she had with Yeonghae allowed her to get closer with his family members too. Chanhyeok was the first to treat her like a life long buddy and certainly her favourite between the cousins, but she discovered in the silent Seungi a good teacher about wolf stuff.

Among the things she learned was the fact that Wonshik’s companion had been attacked by what they called ‘pure blood’ werewolves – the ones that actually eat humans – in a fight they had some ten years back. She had been in the hospital, unconscious and kept alive by machines, until she finally overcame the walls restraining her spirit and woke up. Even though she still couldn’t move at all she was back in the wolf’s mansion and Wonshik spends most of his time taking care of her.

She also learned how Kangdae’s companion lived a rather happy life until she was around fifty years old and died over an incurable disease some fifty years back. She also learned how Gwangjin’s companion had been killed by evil vampires, how Seungi’s companion died giving birth to his third child and - surely the saddest of the stories - how Chanhyeok accidentally killed his companion even before he was able to fully tell her about his undying devotion and love.

That was a tale Chanhyeok himself told her, because he kept thanking her for loving Yeonghae, despite her brother being a hunter. He told her the girl he loved had some kind of sixth sense, therefore she sensed he was going to engage on a particular hard fight against pure bloods, but since she didn’t know he was actually an uratha she went looking for him, unfortunately for the both of them, Chanhyeok was in his Gauru form and when she stepped into the battlefield. He killed her without a second thought only taking notice of his action when he was back in dalu form and Yeonghae was desperately trying to stop her bleeding.

Of course those four years were filled with fights and assistance on both sides. Even if there were minor battles, Daroll always asked to send at least one of his progenies to give assistance. The ones to come more often were Younghyun and Sungmin, the first for his undying friendship with Yeonghae, the latter for his undying friendship with Seungi and Kangdae. She learned another tale about them too. Before his first change, Seungi got to know Sungmin and they became friends. Sungmin was even pondering over telling him the truth and keep Seungi as his blood doll, yet his friend turned out to be an uratha. It was actually because of their friendship that they could learn more about each other’s kind and forge that long time alliance.

Among the vampires Younghyun became her favourite teasing target, and surely the tease was mutual, but if there was a vampire she was close with it was Henry. If Yeonghae and the wolves had been out of the picture, Henry would certainly have turned Meeyon into his blood doll too. Talking about blood dolls, she developed quite a nice friendship with Jia, who worked hard to turn her into someone that liked fashion. He failed partially because sure she wore the clothes he gave her as gifts, but she never really paid attention to them.

All in all, Meeyon enjoyed life with Yeonghae and all the people attached to it, she even imagined herself marrying him, but of course waiting for him to come up with the idea. If one looked into their relationship, they could say they were already married, just not living together. And of course she’d been taking precautions not to be found pregnant – not yet. But all that was bound to change once again, when Simon and Sunhi announced he was going to move in with the wolves and the two of them were going to marry. Talk about unexpected.

The day Simon moved in, there was a big party at the wolves mansion and the newlyweds were the centre of attention. Of course Meeyon was there too, and after the outside guests – like Simon’s parents who were still a bit against the idea – left, Yeonghae invited her to stay over as well. Since Sunhi announced she wanted to live with Simon and he accepted the trial to live in their mansion, he had been pondering to ask Meeyon to come and live with him as well, but all the tension of the first months in their relationship had left a big scar on him.

When the two were nestled in Yeonghae’s bed he gathered all his courage to ask her. “What do you think about Simon moving in?” His tone was that tad bit anxious but overall sounded curious.

“I’m so happy for him and Sunhi!” Meeyon immediately chimed, barely refraining from clapping her hands like a happy little kid as she did so. She reached out a hand to run her fingers through his hair then and smiled at him, pressing a soft kiss on his nose. It was obvious that she was having a good day.

“I mean... If I asked you, would you consider living here with me?” he asked, making sure his point got through. His tone was much more anxious than curious now. She froze right in the middle of doodling something on his cheek, capturing his eyes with hers and looking at him in surprise for a moment. She then smiled almost apologetically.

“I’ve thought about it before already, actually,” she then confessed. “And I really like the idea of living in the same house as you at all times. It’s just that I’m pretty fond of being able to do things my way, having a place of my own, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fit into this kind of big family,” She continued her doodling on his cheek as she talked, focusing on the things she drew to not have to constantly look at him. “But I could… try it out if you really want me to.” she then said, looking at him again with a slight smile.

He smiled over her words and pulled her chin up to give her a kiss. “You could come and live here for two weeks or so, to get the feel of it. I’d love to share my bed with you more often.” he offered rolling over her and kissing her again. She chuckled into the kiss, cupping his face with her hands to make sure he couldn’t pull away too soon. When she did allow him to break the kiss, she smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“I know you do, sweetie,” she then said, laughter obvious in her voice. He nuzzled her closer and kissed her neck. Strangely enough that became his trademark good night kiss as he waited for her to fall asleep under his warmth and for him to fall asleep after watching her sleeping for a while. Even though she didn’t feel sleepy at all, once he cuddled her close like that and wished her goodnight, it never took her long to fall asleep, and neither did it this time.

The next day the breakfast was loud and happy, both Simon and Meeyon were still amazed on how warm the pack felt. Needless to say Simon was elated to hear Meeyon would spend two weeks there to help Simon get used to the place and also test if she could live there herself. So a few hours later Yeonghae was helping his girlfriend pack some of her things to temporarily move in with him. She took only the most necessary things, a few sets of clothes and all her school stuff, figuring she could always come back in case she forgot something or needed something specific.

The next two weeks she spent in Yeonghae’s house were hectic. There were so many people it sometimes made her head hurt to try and keep up with everyone’s activities in order to not prepare too little food for dinner. It was also hard to adapt to their hunting times, as being right in the middle of them made it all the more real. The first few times she could hardly sleep as Yeonghae was gone, but soon she got used to the hunting schedule again as well, enjoying the times he was with her all the more.

Her friendship with Chanhyeok became even closer as they lived in the same house now, having much more time to spend with each other, and it was also a time in which she got to know Wonshik a lot better. One day she carefully asked him about his wife and he surprised her by immediately taking her to his wife’s room with him and willingly answering every question she had to ask.

By the time the two weeks were over, she had already become a part of the big family, getting along well with every single one of them. They had all grown used to her usually making dinner by then too, but she gave that task back to the previous cook as she decided to go back to her apartment after all.

It was after those two weeks that something else changed. Usually Sunhi would turn into a wolf in front of her cousins and them in front of her, they never had any problem with that – well after they got used to it that is – but since Simon and Meeyon were now living there, they did change their routine. Now all male wolves changed in the pool male change room and the three female wolves changed in the female one.

One night when Sunhi ordered her body to morph, there was a nagging feeling at the back of her head, something telling her she shouldn’t change. It bothered her that night and when it happened again on the next one, she didn’t morph. When questioned by the younger girls she only said she needed to talk with her father before going to hunt.

The moment she stepped out of the changing room in her human form, Simon dashed to her asking if she was all right. Soohwan, who had already morphed, turned back into his human form and walked to his daughter, making Simon slightly unpleased.

“Why didn’t you change?” he asked with a grave voice looking at Sunhi seriously.

“I don’t want to. When I try to morph my body rejects the order and I have to make use of my willpower. I think… I am!” Realization hit her.

“You’ll stay home from now on. Sunhi look at me,” The girl did as she was told. “From now on until the baby is born, you’ll stay home and will not hunt.” He looked up at Kangdae then. “Son, you’ll stay with her today.” The wolf nodded and went back inside the changing room.

Simon looked from one to the other and then rested his eyes on Sunhi. “Baby?”

She looked at him and smiled brightly. “I’m pregnant, Simon!” she exclaimed, jumping in her husband’s arms. He did catch her, but apart from that was too stunned to react, staring blankly at the place she had been before she jumped into his arms.

“Preg...nant?” he questioned slowly when he remembered how to speak.

She released herself from his arms and smiled warmly at him. “It’s ok. The pack will raise him the best way it can.” Her words were soft.

“Him?” he echoed. “You already know that it’ll be a boy?”

She chuckled. “I’m hoping it will be a boy. But we can ask Yeonghae to see the future if you want,” She then turned to her father. “Dad, I’m going back to our room, have a safe hunt.” Her father smiled and ordered the pack to leave once Kangdae returned fully dressed in his human form.

He started fussing over his little sister and she tried to calm him asking to have time alone with her husband. Kangdae huffed but complied and Sunhi pulled the astonished Simon back to their room. Once they were in there, he seemed to have gotten over his shock a little, because he immediately pulled her into a hug, squeezing her so tightly that he would’ve been afraid of breaking her if she weren’t a werewolf.

“We’re getting a child!” he then muttered, finally realising the whole depth of that news.

“We are, Simon! I never imagined myself giving birth… If I see it from a human’s point of view it’s such a marvellous thing, but if I see it from the urathas’s point of view I’m so vulnerable now. I won’t be able to hunt nor shape shift until the baby is born. I’m such an easy prey... it’s scary.” she confessed, seeking his arms as a shield from any harm.

“Well your cousins and brother are here to protect you.” Simon reassured her, feeling slightly bitter that he was not one of those who could. He didn’t let that feeling show, however, as he leaned in to share a kiss.

“And you... I feel the safest when I’m beside you. Because your presence helps me focus, helps me not lose my sanity,” She breathed in his scent. “You’re the reason I always find my way back.”

He smiled then, pulling her closer and just holding her tight like that, not wanting to let go. Never wanting to let go. Finding her was the best thing ever happened to him and he would be forever grateful to Meeyon for helping him realise that the whole werewolf thing was not such a big deal in the end.

Sunhi giggled. “I think I really have to thank Meeyon,” she commented as she tried to pull Simon to bed. For a moment he froze, staring at her awkwardly. “Are you reading my mind?” he then huffed.

She looked at him with curious eyes. “You know we don’t have that kind of power. Looks like Meeyon influences many lives.” she said, and then chuckled.

“What do you have to thank her for then?” he questioned, pulling her down on the bed with him to cuddle in a more comfortable position.

“She convinced me to let you know the truth,” Sunhi then confessed, reminiscing those days Yeonghae seemed so hurt and out of his cool.

He snorted. “And she convinced me to accept that truth. So the only reason we’re together is her, huh?” he replied then, making a face. “Yet she still refuses to accept everything like we do and wants to live alone? We should teach her a lesson too!”

“I agree! When will she stop hurting my favourite cousin?” Sunhi kept silent. “Let’s make her jealous.” The girl smirked

“Make her jealous how?” he wondered, his interest obvious in the way he smiled.

“I’m sure we won’t have to do much, Sam.” Sunhi smirked and reached for the phone to call Meeyon.

Sunhi was out shopping for the baby with Simon a few days later when she noticed something off. Being a tracker she was one of those most familiar with the spirits’ essence, so when she noticed one very strong spirit was following them, she quickly asked to go back home and inform the pack. It was known that when a female werewolf got pregnant the spirits tend to seek the child to turn it into their own minion, killing the baby while it is still inside the womb and letting it be born as a ghost child. And a black birth was something no one in the pack wanted.

Chanhyeok offered to track the Spirit and Yeonghae offered to be Sunhi’s bodyguard by using his powers to foresee any danger. Kangdae also offered to be beside his sister 24/7. The other werewolves took turns in the hunt to take care of Sunhi’s safety, as well as Simon’s for the spirit could try to use him against them. Yeonghae called Meeyon, the same night they decided all that, to give the news. When she picked up, her voice sounded off a little, as if she had something in her mouth.

“Hey sweetie, what’s going on?” she asked, since it was one of those nights where he would come over, so he would only call if something was wrong.

“Meeyon... I won’t be able to show up for a while. We kind of got a new epic battle, only this one we can’t lose for nothing in this world. Sunhi is pregnant and her child is being targeted by a strong spirit. I need to guard her.” his voice was sad and preoccupied. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again, her voice clearer now.

“Sunhi’s pregnant?” she asked in surprise. “Since when? Why did no one tell me?” But then she seemed to realise the actual message. “A spirit...? Oh well, you should make sure she and the baby are safe then indeed.”

“She realized a couple days back. We wanted to confirm and yeah… She’s almost two weeks pregnant. You call me if you want to come by, okay? I don’t know how long we’ll have to protect her.” There was a pause in which she heard Chanhyeok calling him and then his voice talked to her again “I have to go, love.”

“Okay...” she replied. “Take good care of them, Yeonghae. I’ll talk to you soon.” He hummed something in reply and hung up.

They focused so much on the task of protecting the baby that Yeonghae never called again, let alone show up to make her dinner and cuddle her to bed, he spent most of his days and nights asleep going through his prophetic dreams.

Part of her understood the need to protect the baby, another part of her wanted Yeonghae to not spend so much time on his cousin and spare some for her. Those two parts constantly battled each other to see who was right, which resulted in her being so insecure of what she should feel that she decided to not feel anything at all, pushing away both the jealous feeling as her love for him. That resulted in her gradually growing colder as time passed.

At first she texted him quite often, then it became only every now and then, but after a few weeks she dropped even that. She started focusing solely on her job. Since there was no one else around her aside from the wolves and Simon who were all staying close beside Sunhi, she searched for other friends. In weekends she sometimes hung out with one of her colleagues, going shopping or watching a movie, and every now and then she met up with her mother. But most of the time, if she was not at work, she was at home sleeping or cleaning. She had not a single clue of what went on at the wolves’ house.

On the other hand part of Yeonghae understood when the texts stopped, part of him wanted her to fight and still cling to him. Despite that, he did his job dutifully, or almost, and in about two months they managed to eliminate the danger.

One could say it’s rare for a pack to protect its members so much like Soohwan’s pack did. Chanhyeok and the two irrakas pups set traps all around the territory, especially around their mansion, and searched for any trace of the spirit aiming to get the baby. The other members meanwhile doubled the patrol system. Yeonghae was the all time dream watcher, so they could know if the spirit would try sneaking in or where it could be found in the spirit realm.

He wanted to be with Meeyon, but the hours he had to spend sleeping and then breaking his head to try to understand the dreams, together with the pups needing his guidance, drained all of him. The only moments he could allow himself to think of her were the moments his mobile phone would vibrate, but once it stopped he tried to solely focus on his dreams so he could get back to Meeyon sooner.

Yet as the days passed without any contact with her, his mind got distracted from the task in a very inopportune way. He dreamt about Meeyon, but the dreams only lead him to despair and depression because they were prophecies, glimpses of the future. A future not nice in his point of view. He only managed to focus again after some serious scolding from the Alpha.

Once the spirit fell into the irrakas’ trap and Yeonghae managed to foresee his moves, the wolves set a spiritual barrier around Simon so he wouldn’t be possessed and another barrier around Sunhi so her body would react if an unfamiliar and unfriendly spirit approached her.

The actual fight was less troubling since the wolves were well prepared and easily outnumbered the spirit’s minions. Once they made sure the spirit had been destroyed, they ended the spells around the couple. Their routine could co back on track.


	7. Waning Gibbous

When they believed everything could go back to normal, Yeonghae decided to not simply show up at Meeyon’s place, but first look how she was doing. In fact he decided to stalk her on one of those days she was out with her colleagues. One of them had an obvious crush on her and the group had apparently decided to play the cupid.

As the group was walking through the shopping mall, Meeyon wandered off to look at some of the clothes and bags in the windows. Her other colleagues silently urged their friend to go buy her a milkshake and have some small talk with her, convincing him that she would surely like that. When he finally complied with their urges, quickly going to the nearest ice cream store to order a milkshake, the rest of the group disappeared into a nearby store, looking at them from a distance.

Not long after, the young man walked up to Meeyon, offering her a plain vanilla milkshake. She looked up in surprise when he did, but smiled gratefully then, taking it from him. At first he was slightly silent, occasionally sipping from his coffee, but when Meeyon decided to have some small talk and made a comment about some of the outrageous prices, it didn’t take long for the conversation to get going.

They walked around the shopping mall together from then on. Meeyon inquired after their other colleagues once, but he told her they had gone to a different store and would meet them again later, so she shrugged it off. By the time they had walked by several stores, she was laughing at a silly joke he had made and even took hold of his arm to drag him along when she suddenly spotted something nice in the next one. Her colleague was obviously enjoying spending time with her and she didn’t seem to mind his company either.

Yeonghae watched from afar, his heart tearing as he noticed how Meeyon’s life would be without him. He started questioning himself again, doubting the certainty that they must be together. He was the one putting up the distance and now he would be the one to make it disappear. So he decided to call her on her mobile, still watching from afar.

When she suddenly heard her ringtone, she quickly excused herself with her colleague, taking it out of her pocket and checking who was calling. She frowned slightly upon seeing his name, picking up immediately and bringing the phone to her ear.

“Is something wrong?” she asked immediately, worry evident in her voice.

“Yes. There is. I wonder if you still want me to make you dinner and cuddle you to sleep.” his tone was soft and she could clearly hear the ‘missing you’ in it.

She was silent for a moment and then her expression started to soften, a smile appearing on her face. “Of course I do,” she replied, glancing at her colleague next to her. “But I’m out with my colleagues right now and they gave me a ride here, so I don’t know when I’ll be back...”

“Should I go fetch you then?” he offered. “We could go somewhere just the two of us.”

Another glance at her colleague before she spoke again. “Give me a moment, Hae,” she then said, putting a hand on her phone and talking to her colleague. She exchanged a few lines with him, smiling that bright smile at him again and inquiring after their other colleagues. He asked if she had to go and she apologized for that. He smiled, telling her it was okay, that he would find the others again. She brought the phone back to her ear. “That could work, yes. How long would it take you to get to the mall?”

“Fifteen to twenty minutes I guess. Where can I find you?” he questioned now with a warm smile gracing his features.

“Give me another moment,” she spoke again, once more taking the phone from her ear and turning to her colleague again. There was another short exchange of words, before he leaned in to press a kiss on her cheek. She smiled at him and waved shortly, before he walked off. For a moment she watched him go, waiting until he was far enough, before putting the phone back to her ear. “Hae?” she then questioned, as if to make sure he was still there.

“Humn?” was all he could muster and his heart twisted in pain again.

She smiled, walking up to a bench close to her and sitting down. “You can come out of hiding now,” she then said, lifting her head and glancing around, as if to find him.

He came walking to her, but didn’t reply to that. When he was right behind her he spoke again still in the mouthpiece of his phone. “I guess I got found out.” Having said that, he hung up.

She turned around upon hearing his voice, smiling lightly when she saw him and ending the call as well. She got up then, walking around the bench to hug him. “Even you cannot make it to this mall in twenty minutes,” she told him as she rested her head against his chest. “And next time you call me when you’re stalking me, you should do it from outside the mall. I could hear the same music playing in the background as I was hearing around me.”

“My bad. But I spent so much time without seeing you that walking outside would be too much to bear,” he said, taking hold of her chin and making her look at him. “We managed to win yet another epic crusade. You can stop ignoring me,” he half joked.

She huffed, pulling her face out of his grip and letting go of him to put her phone away, thereby also creating some distance between them. “I didn’t even have a chance to ignore you as there was no you around to ignore,” she protested against his words, crossing her arms in front of her as she looked at him. Right then someone called her name, however, and she looked up to see her colleagues coming up to them.

“Hey Meeyon, I’m glad you’re not gone yet,” Hanli, the one working in the same office as her, said as they approached her. “Did you forget you lend me your jacket? You’d be going off without it!” She handed said thing over and Meeyon took it from her, with a soft laugh and a grateful smile.

“I guess I would have,” she replied, grinning sheepishly. As she put her jacket back on, she noticed all her colleagues looking interestedly at Yeonghae. Only the male colleague she had spent most of her afternoon with eyed him with slight suspicion. She looked at Yeonghae too for a moment and then smiled. “How rude of me. This is Yeonghae,” she introduced him to them. “Yeonghae, these are my colleagues.” They all greeted him with polite smiles and nods, stating their own names one by one.

He smiled at them and politely introduced himself. “I hope you all take good care of Meeyon when I’m not around,” he spoke with a little sad edge to his voice. “I hope we could see each other another time,” he offered and then looked at Meeyon. “So will you ignore me now that I’m around again or will you have dinner with me?” He made no mentions of being her boyfriend, because that piece of information was for her to say.

“Have you been ignoring people again, Meeyon?” Hanli commented, her tone scolding. “You should really get rid of that habit, you know. It’s no good to you!” Meeyon smiled ruefully, before motioning at Yeonghae.

“What do you mean not good for me? Whenever I ignore people they come following me around, isn’t that great?” she joked, but then took hold of Yeonghae’s hand. “We’ll set off now, I’ll see you all at work on Monday!” she greeted them then. It was Hanli who sent her such surprised looks that she trailed a moment longer. “What’s wrong, unnie?” she asked, smiling.

“You’re holding hands? Does that mean...?” the elder asked, not finishing her sentence as she looked up at her again. Meeyon chuckled.

“Does that mean what?” she asked amused, entwining her fingers with Yeonghae’s. “I’ll be having dinner with my boyfriend now if you don’t mind.” she grinned, waving at them shortly before turning away, gently tugging Yeonghae along with her. Her colleagues stared after her in surprise and awe, whereas the one she had spent the afternoon with could only stare sadly.

Yeonghae could only grin amusedly in his turn, and then sent a short bow in their direction. Once he looked ahead he squeezed her hand a little. “I’m really sorry Meeyon, but a baby is such a great thing for us. Especially if it’s from any of our girls.”

“Are they stronger when they are born from one of you?” she casually asked, making sure to not use any of the words that could make anyone listening in realise exactly what they were talking about. She was bound to never tell anyone about it, after all.

“No. They can be stolen and be born dead.” Yeonghae sighed feeling bad for Sunhi and Simon.

“Oh... But you prevented that from happening now, right?” she asked, shortly glancing up at him.

“Yes we managed. Simon was really strong, standing beside Sunhi and even helping us. He will be a great father.” Yeonghae commented and pride shone in his eyes.

She smiled. “Yes, Sam will be a really great father,” she agreed. “He has always been great with children. I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to handle even a stubborn little one of your kind,” There was a soft smile on her face as she thought back to the one friend that had been beside her for so long now. “I miss him, though...” she then mumbled, feeling slightly hurt as she allowed that feeling to seep in.

“You don’t have to, and he can go around again, you could go out one of these days.” Yeonghae pulled her close as encouraged her to do just that.

“I don’t want to pull him away from Sunhi,” she replied. “He’d be reluctant to leave his wife for as long as she’s pregnant.”

“Then you can always go visit them,” Yeonghae offered. “What do you want to eat?” he pondered over his favourite restaurants at the mall.

She shrugged slightly. “I’m not very hungry,” she then confessed. “So you pick wherever you want to eat.”

He made her stop at that. “I’d rather make you dinner, then. Let’s go back to your house?”

“If you want,” she replied, once again shrugging. “Did you come by car?” He nodded and pulled her in the direction of the parking lot.

It didn’t take long for them to settle down in the car with him driving and her staring out the window. The ride home was silent, as neither of them seemed to have anything to say. They arrived at her place about half an hour later and she got out the moment he stopped the car. She pulled her keys from her pocket and walked into the apartment complex, walking up the stairs until the first floor and unlocking her door then. It was only when she kicked off her shoes that she looked up to see if Yeonghae had followed her.

He was right behind her closing the door after him and waiting for her to move so he could toe off his shoes as well and go make dinner. “You can go shower while I cook,” he offered.

She nodded at that, sending him a slight smile as she walked towards the bathroom. She stopped by her room to pick some comfortable clothes first and then took another quick shower. Instead of going straight to the kitchen when she was done, she stayed in her bedroom for a little, sending a short text to Dongjun, her male colleague, apologizing for not telling him about her boyfriend sooner and saying that she hoped they could be friends anyway. When she didn’t get any reply, she felt slightly sad, getting up from the bed then to walk over to the kitchen, leaving her phone on the nightstand.

When she entered the kitchen Yeonghae sent her a small smile and said the food would be read in ten more minutes, that she could go watch TV or something. She nodded once again, walking off to the living room and turning on the TV. She zapped to one of the channels where some mainstream drama was playing and settled down on the couch to watch it. By the time Yeonghae finished dinner, however, her eyes had closed and she had fallen asleep.

When he saw her sleeping, he sighed and walked to her, softly touching her cheeks in an attempt of waking her up by just calling out her name. She slowly opened her eyes at that, staring blankly ahead for a moment, before turning her head a little to look at him, her eyes slightly unfocused.

“Please eat just a little bit and you can go sleep, ok?” he smiled warmly offering a hand to help her up.

“I’m really not hungry,” she protested, but she got up anyway, without use of his hand. She walked over to the kitchen then, sitting down on her chair and eyeing the food he prepared for a moment.

“Just two or three bites please. I don’t like it when you don’t eat,” he spoke again, his tone pleading. She sighed, serving herself a small portion of the food and picking up her chopsticks. She took a bite then, chewing slowly on the food and swallowing it, before taking a second mouthful.

“Tell me what you are thinking, Meeyon.” Yeonghae asked as he looked at her chewing the second bite.

“I’m really not hungry,” she mumbled, after swallowing the second bite, not even looking at him as she spoke.

“Do you love me any less for leaving you to protect Sunhi?” he went direct to the point since she didn’t seem to cooperate. She shook her head to that question as she had just put a next bite of food in her mouth, staring pensively at her table as she chewed it again.

“Do you think I would try to make you change your mind about babies?” he tried again.

She looked up at him then, swallowing the food with some apprehension and leaving a moment of silence. “Why are you asking me this? Do you think I will love you less because of it? Do you want to change my mind about getting children?” she retorted then, eyeing him with a slight frown.

“I am insecure, Meeyon. Whenever you go cold I feel insecure,” He leaned in and rested his forehead on his clasped hands up the table. She stared at him for a moment, before putting down her chopsticks and getting up.

“Perhaps you should have made a little effort to try and contact me too then.” she said, before walking to her bedroom again. She closed the door behind her but didn’t lock it, moving to the balcony and sitting down there.

He walked after her and entered her room, but he leaned against the door. “I only have excuses to tell you. Would you listen?” She remained silent, resting her head against the wall behind her and looking up. There was a dull pain in her chest that made her want to cry, but she just stared up at the clouds and stars without saying a word.

Yeonghae sighed and walked up to her, standing in front of her so she would look at him as he spoke. “Chanhyeok won’t ever have any children and you know why. I won’t have any children because you don’t want kids. When Sunhi said she was being targeted, when the threat of her giving birth to something we’d have to kill as soon as it would be born appeared... I could only think of protecting that child. I slept asking for dreams and spent my awake hours trying to interpret them, trying to take from them some useful information. But more than half of my dreams had nothing to do with her,” He took in a deep breath before he spoke again. “One of those dreams showed you with some other guy. It showed you happy, it showed you pregnant, and it repeated itself more than once. I kept wondering what that meant. I had no mind to call you because that image kept tormenting me.”

“So what then?” she countered, her tone slightly sharp. “You start doubting me based on some dreams?” She stared at him for a moment, something very raw and vulnerable shining through in her expression, before she turned her head away. “Please leave. If you can only question me then go,”

“My dreams are insights of the future, blurred and messed up but they are the future,” He explained, his voice sad, his expression sad, his heart shattered. He took in a deep breath and pulled her to him to press their lips together.

But she pulled away again already moments later. “So what if you see me together with another guy? I was together with Dongjun today, does that make me pregnant of his kids?” she snapped, pulling herself free from his grip and walking back into her room, since she wasn’t even free from him sitting outside. “I don’t need this crap, Yeonghae, I really don’t,” she continued as she stalked through the room. “I’m going out,” She threw the door closed behind her and set for the front door, planning to really leave the house.

Right after she left the room, her phone vibrated, indicating she had a new message. Yeonghae walked up to the phone to look at it.

_From: Dongjun_

_It’s okay, Meeyon, don’t worry about it. You don’t choose who you love, right? I also hope we can still be friends and act normally around each other. Don’t feel too awkward, I’ll do my best to get over you. ^^ See you at work on Monday! Xx_

Moments later the front door was thrown closed, indicating that Meeyon was really leaving.

Yeonghae decided to put her phone back where it was and run to catch up to her. Before she could go out of the building he managed to hold her wrist. “You don’t have to leave. I won’t bother you anymore,” he smiled sadly at her and passed her by.

His future was clear enough for him.

She froze in place when he said that, staring at his back as he walked away. There was a moment in which she seemingly remembered everything they had gone through for the past four years, and then her legs gave in on her, making her slide down until she was sitting on the ground, still staring at his back.

He wanted to look back, he wanted to go back to her, but she had asked him to leave and when he didn’t, she tried to go away. He was messed up again and the dreams were not exactly helping him, so he got into his car and drove off. When he arrived back home all eyes were on him, all but Soohwan’s, who sighed. Yeonghae walked to his room and locked himself in.

Meeyon remained sitting on the hallway floor for the rest of the evening. There was no one who had to be on that floor and everyone usually took the elevator to the other floors, so no one noticed her sitting there, still staring in the direction Yeonghae had left in.

“Can I make you my blood doll now?” some very familiar voice sounded behind her at some point. Her response was almost non-existent, only a slight tilting of her head, as if to be able to catch the sound better, but her eyes never left the stairs. The someone walked closer and crouched on the floor beside her. “Staring in the direction he left won’t bring him back.” There still seemed to be no reaction coming from her, as if her eyes were glued to the deserted stairs.

“Meeyon. If you don’t come out from Yeonghae-left-me-land next time he goes on an epic battle he won’t come back. He has no reason to right now,” the other advised after a sigh. She slowly turned her head at that, unfocused eyes wandering over the face that came into view, her hand trying to clutch at his hand as if her life depended on it. He reached for it. “A reaction good. Are you back yet or not?”

“He won’t come back?” she asked, voice soft, her brain finally linking the face to a name; Henry.

“Meeyon, you didn’t learn yet? An uratha lives on a brick wall between flesh and spirit. If he falls from up there he dies. Yeonghae is falling for the flesh. Once he fell in love with you, it’s you keeping him up. Without you either he dies or he becomes a block of ice... Yeonghae is too good natured to become the second,” Henry offered a soft smile.

She stared at him for a long time without saying anything, but when she finally did respond, it was only to repeat the same question. “He won’t come back?”

“He will, if you give him a reason to,” Henry tried again, he could never understand how her mind worked.

“He knows...” she mumbled, still holding on tightly to Henry’s hand. “He knows if he doesn’t come back, I will follow him. If he doesn’t come back I will die with him,” Her voice broke at that last line, tears starting to spill over her cheeks, seemingly coming from nowhere.

“He knows you told him that, once four years ago. What do you think of that colleague you were out today? Right now Yeonghae thinks you will follow him.”

Henry started wiping the tears away, so she leaned in to his touch, moving closer then to lean against him, then hug him, then completely curl up against him, as if he would be able to shield her from the incredible ache in her chest that had replaced the dull pain. He sighed and picked her up effortlessly, taking her back inside her apartment and then inside her room, sitting down on her bed and reaching over her mobile. She took it, blindly pressing the two and calling. It took only three tones before the person on the other side picked up and before she could even be greeted, she was already spilling her mind.

“Mom... Mom I’m so scared...” she wailed, pressing her cheek against Henry’s chest and wrapping her free arm tightly around him. The response from the other side was immediate.

“Meeyon, baby, what’s wrong?” her mother asked, the hidden panic obvious in her voice. “What happened, baby, is everything ok? What’s going on?”

“I’m scared...” was the only thing she kept repeating, her mind a complete blank. The only thing she knew for sure was that she knew nothing for sure anymore. Henry stopped breathing when she spoke and he cursed in his head for Meeyon to be so difficult sometimes.

“I’m coming, sweetie, don’t move,” her mother spoke and moments later the line went dead. She let the phone slip out of her hand, wrapping her second arm around Henry too and hiding her face against him. Her breathing was irregular and she occasionally gasped for air as if she was lacking oxygen.

Henry pulled his own phone and called Yeonghae’s house. Of course it was Soohwan who answered the phone. “Uncle... Not nice calling Daroll hyung to ask me back here, only to find Meeyon in this state. If you don’t want Meeyon and Yeonghae together the problem is yours, but I do want them happy,” Right after he said that he hung up and then called Yeonghae.

“What do you want, Henry?” the uratha growled at the other side of the line.

“Just wanted to tell you Meeyon is dying in my arms so I’m turning her into a vampire because I like her that much, bye bye,” and Henry also hung up on him.

“Seriously you guys only give me trouble. If I don’t get this solved today I’ll call Younghyun to knock some sense on you guys,” Henry cuddled Meeyon closer and moved to be able to reach her neck with his mouth.

Meeyon suddenly heaved another deep breath of air and then stilled, her breathing still too fast to be normal, but at least she didn’t sound as if she was dying anymore. Yet the next moment her body went limp in his arms, her head falling to the side, thereby exposing her neck even more to him. Henry sighed, kissed her neck and waited. It was not ten minutes later when some big ball of brown fur stormed inside her bedroom through the balcony door.

“Her mother may be arriving any time now, so you better change, put on some clothes and we can try to wake her up,” Henry said angrily. Yeonghae instantly relaxed from his attacking position and did as Henry advised, trying to wake her up.

It was only a few minutes after Yeonghae arrived that her mother did too, using the spare key to get into the house and frantically calling out Meeyon’s name. When she opened the bedroom door and saw Meeyon and the two guys, she stopped in surprise for a moment, but then she saw Meeyon’s unmoving body and she stormed forward again, cradling her daughter’s face between her hands and looking at her.

“Meeyon? Meeyon, baby?” she asked, but there came no response. Immediately the woman looked up at Yeonghae. “What happened? Tell me everything,” she ordered, her voice obviously not allowing anything but an answer.

“We had a fight... She asked me to leave... I tried to make her understand my point but she tried to leave... So instead of letting her out at night, I left.” Yeonghae stammered, trying not to reveal too much.

“What was the fight about?” her mother continued to question him. “Did you make her doubt you?”

“I told her before... If she doesn’t want me beside her... I’ll just leave...” Yeonghae started crying, that was too much for him, the flashes of his dreams coming back to him. Seeing her out with her colleague, having her reject his kiss and asking him to leave, then Henry’s call. Everything was too much for him.

“Oh dear...” her mother spoke softly, letting go of Meeyon to walk over to Yeonghae. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her, softly petting his hair and rocking him back and forth as she murmured comforting words to him. She did that for a few moments, before looking up at Henry. “Can you lay Meeyon on her back on the bed, please?” she asked him softly. “Just cover her with the blanket. She should wake up in a while,” As she spoke, she kept holding Yeonghae, her adoration for her daughter’s boyfriend making her motherly instinct flare up at his crying. Henry did as he was told thanking whatever was out there for his eyes not to be red at that moment.

“I’m Henry, Meeyon’s mom,” he spoke and bowed to her before also going to Hae pinching his cheeks. “Stop crying, hyung,” But Yeonghae was losing his balance way too fast. Henry noticed the subtle tremble and the slightly change in his body temperature so he whispered for only Yeonghae to hear. “If you lose your cool now, Meeyon will never be with you again.”

Yeonghae looked up at him and tried his best to compose himself again. Upon noticing he stopped crying, Meeyon’s mother let go of him a little, cupping his face between her hands and wiping his tears away.

“You have been incredible for my daughter these past few years,” she said, stroking through his hair and smiling at him encouragingly. “My Meeyon is a difficult girl to deal with and I’m amazed at how well she has felt with you. Do not beat yourself up too much about this,” Her words were said in a kind voice, her tone soft. “Fights like these happen in relationships, but they have a bigger impact on her than they do on most people. I’m surprised this is the first time something like this happened over the past four years,” She smiled again. “Believe me, Yeonghae, whatever she says, she doesn’t want you to leave. She told me more than enough times that she’d marry you immediately if you’d ask, and that means a lot coming from her. Give yourself some credit. Believe in yourself a bit more. Believe in her a bit too.”

Yeonghae nodded at those words and then looked at Henry. “Can you take care of her for a couple of days?” he asked in a firm tone and Henry raised an eyebrow at him.

“I will take care of her,” her mother intervened, walking back to the bed and sitting down on the edge. “What will you do?” she then asked Yeonghae.

Yeonghae looked at Meeyon’s unconscious form and spoke with determination, as he erased the last traces of tears. “Something I should have done long ago. Buy a ring.”

A small smile appeared on her face and she reached out a hand to him. “Let me see your hand?” she asked calmly. He looked at her slightly confused but put his hand on hers.

She looked at it for a moment, studying his fingers and then letting go again. “If it fits around your pinky finger, it should fit her too,” she then said. “I’ll stick around until you’re back, don’t worry about her.”

He nodded with a grateful smile and then pulled Henry. “Then you’ll come with me,” Henry started protesting and ‘faked’ to be dragged away. “I want to be with Yonnie!” Yeonghae glared at him and Henry gave up. “Bye, Meeyon’s mom! Hope to see you another time in happier circumstances.” he waved.

The woman watched them leave with a small smile, before turning her attention to her daughter, stroking the hair out of Meeyon’s face and softly patting her cheek to try and wake her up. It had been more than ten years since she had last seen her daughter like that.

It was only thirty minutes later that Meeyon woke up again, dazed and slightly lost, but much calmer at least and it stayed that way since her mother was around. She remained lying in bed as her mother brought her a cup of tea to drink, to calm her nerves and soothe her headache. Not long after she emptied the cup, she fell back asleep.

Her mother stayed there for the following days, taking care of Meeyon, calling her workplace to tell them she would not be around and making sure Meeyon got enough to eat. The girl never asked about Yeonghae and the mother never brought him up, both for their own reasons.

Yeonghae spent those following three days looking for the perfect ring, a ring he was sure she would like. When he finally found it, he went back home and gave the news he was going to ask Meeyon to marry him. There were cheers and Soohwan smiled knowingly. After Yeonghae showered and was ready to leave for Meeyon’s place, the eldest called him aside.

“Yeonghae, the dreams are often true, not always, but often. Don’t let them guide your every move. Always believe more in your heart than in them. Don’t make the same mistake again.” Yeonghae nodded and hugged his uncle, the only man he knew as a father figure as his own father had died when he was young. He left then and soon enough was standing in front of Meeyon’s door, anxiously ringing the doorbell. It was her mother who opened the door for him, smiling friendly and stepping aside to let him in.

“I’m glad to see you,” she said, motioning him that he could go to the living room. “Meeyon is currently asleep. I’ll let you wake her up, but I’d like to tell you something first.”

Yeonghae nodded, his feelings too messed up for him to know what was actually filling him at that moment. Her mother sat down on the couch, waiting for him to sit down as well before she started talking.

“Meeyon has a psychological problem,” she then said. “No doctor we have been to has been able to tell us what caused it or what the consequences may be. They’ve never seen it occur before without a reason. The problem is that, when Meeyon feels like she’s being left behind, she panics. That’s what your friend witnessed a few days ago. She panics so much that at one point she can’t take it anymore and she faints. It happened for the first time when I tried to leave her with the babysitter and a few years later a second time when she went to school for the first time. After that we made sure it never happened again, so this was the third time only. We never told her about this because Meeyon is someone who believes in her friends, in the ones who love her, with all she has and doesn’t easily start doubting them. We thought that if she would find out about this, she’d be too afraid of panic attacks to ever try forming any relationship again and we didn’t want her to live with that fear so we never told her, but I feel now that you should know.”

Yeonghae nodded. Most probably that was what he knew as her self defence. “I will try to always be with her. I can’t be beside her 100% of my time but I’ll live beside her for as long as I can. I will protect her. Thank you for letting me know, I’ll try to avoid that from now on.” Yeonghae assured and stood up to wake Meeyon up.

“Yeonghae...” her mother said once more, getting up as well. “As I said I don’t know what consequences her panic attacks may have. I haven’t talked about you with her because she never started about you. I don’t know how much she remembers or what she remembers. Whatever she does; don’t let it hurt you,” She sent him a small smile. “I will go home now, my husband has been alone for the past few days, I have to make sure he gets to eat something decent. Take care, okay?”

“I will,” Yeonghae felt his heart twisting in pain once again. He hugged his soon-to-be-officially mother-in-law as goodbye and then looked in the direction of Meeyon’s bedroom door. He took a deep breath before getting inside the room and walking to the sleeping Meeyon.

Yeonghae spent a minute of solely admiring her and then kneeled beside her bed and caressed her cheek, softly calling her name and urging her to wake up. She opened her eyes at the sound of her name, turning her head towards him like she always did when he woke her up. Her eyes found his face and she looked at him in surprise for a moment, before starting to smile.

He smiled back. “Good afternoon, love.” he greeted before anything else.

Her smile widened at his words and she let her eyes wander over his face, taking in his features, the colour of his eyes, the shape of his lips. “Good afternoon, sweetie.” she then whispered.

“I’m sorry for being such an idiot... I just... fear so much to lose you… But enough is enough,” he spoke firmly as he stood up and climbed on the bed asking her for permission to settle down and cuddle her. She moved away from him as he came closer, however, shaking her head faintly, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Don’t touch me...” she whispered, her voice frail. “This is such a pretty dream, I don’t want to wake up yet.”

“But I want you to wake up,” He said, quickly pulling her to his embrace and holding her close as if trying to blend their fleshes. “Because being beside you must always be reality and not dreams.”

She shut her eyes tightly when he took hold of her, but unlike the previous few times he had come to her in her dreams, the dream didn’t shatter as he touched her. Instead, she felt his body warmth against her and she could even smell the scent she had started to link to him. She opened her eyes in shock, staring at his chest and then lifting a hand to touch it. When there was a solid body beneath her hand, she lifted it to touch his cheek and then his chin, wanting to make sure he was really there.

“I’m here Meeyon... I’m sorry for my stupidity. If that dream was the future, I will make it our future. I love you and I will not walk away anymore,” He pulled her chin up and leaned in to kiss her. When he did, she realised that she wasn’t deceiving herself and he was really there. Tears started to find their way over her cheeks even though she had closed her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed back, crying silently at the same time.

He kissed her softly and when they parted he smiled. “I love you.”

She almost couldn’t believe it, that he was there, that he was holding her, that he loved her, but when she opened her eyes and looked in his eyes, her heart knew it was. And then she offered him the words she had only said a few times before, but they kept spilling out this time. “I love you too. Oh God I love you too. So freaking much. I love you.”

Yeonghae felt his insides exploding in happiness and he pulled her into another kiss, one more demanding and hot, one that showed how much he missed her, how much he missed her taste and the feel of his body in such close contact with hers. She clung to him too, answering his kiss with as much feeling as he was giving her, slipping hands underneath his T-shirt to feel his warm skin, to convince herself over and over again that he was really there, really real, that he wouldn’t disappear in a minute.

Once he felt her hands, he broke the kiss and took his distance, only to take off his t-shirt and let it fall on the floor beside the bed. His hands sneaked to her top to take it off as well, wanting very much to have no clothes between them. Only when that piece of clothing was off her, he leaned in to kiss her again. She answered the kiss without hesitation, pulling herself in a more sitting position so that she could lean in to him more, almost toppling him over backwards as she pressed herself close to him.

He re-positioned themselves making her sit on his lap and feel she had put him through a hard time once again, literally. His hands moved on her back in soothing movements as his mouth left hers and travelled to her neck.

She rested her forehead against his shoulder, letting her fingers travel over his back as well, trailing patterns of scars and just any pattern her mind came up with. “Yeonghae.” she breathed against his skin, her happiness so big she felt like her chest could explode.

He tried to concentrate on the other reason he was doing that to her, so he softly pulled her away to lay her back on the bed, using his hands to still her by caressing her body in its path to take off her bottoms and then take off his as well. She was happy enough just laying there, watching him, feeling his warm hands on her skin. There was a permanent smile on her face now, only a stray tear still lingering on her cheek.

He undressed her fully and then took his time to finish undressing himself. Her pants he threw away, his he made sure to put at his arm’s reach, on a corner of the bed near her head. Only then did he go back to his ministration on her body, kissing her last tear away and making use of soft touches to prepare her to fully receive all of him.

It didn’t take much, the need she was feeling to show him how much she loved and desired him allowed her body to surrender faster than usual and soon the licks and kisses and soft grasps for air got replaces by his fast thrusts and loud groans and her deep intakes of air and loud moans. The two were avid for pleasuring the other, what lead them to positions never tried before and also for her to actually scratch his back endlessly, not that any trace of them could be found mere seconds after she caused them.

Also differently from other times, Yeonghae was the first to reach his climax, making Meeyon smile and moan in victory. Mere seconds later she also reached hers but Yeonghae was no-where satisfied yet. He kept his pace, sending both of them into a second run without a moment of hesitation, their caresses became more demanding and their kisses much more explosive.

Their second climax was held together and both were completely wasted. Yeonghae made sure to not crash on top of her as he held himself up his elbows for a short while, before towering her and pulling her along in a sitting position. She was slightly taken aback by his action, but soon relaxed again when he slipped behind her. He sat on the bed with his back against the headrest, lazily holding her against his chest

Yeonghae waited for his breath to normalize, as well as hers, before reaching for his discarded pants and taking from his pocket a black velvet ring box.

“After I left, Henry threatened me he was going to turn you into a vampire. I rushed here only to see you unconscious... Your mother told me something that made me snap out of my stupidity.” He showed the little box to her.

She stared at it blankly for a moment, before suddenly realising what it was and what it –probably – meant. “Yeonghae...” she whispered, lifting her hands to take the little box from him, her eyes once again filling with tears of happiness. “What?” With trembling fingers she opened the velvet box, revealing a silver ring with black patterns on the side that formed hearts. She wanted to pick it out of the box but was afraid she’d drop it, so instead she leaned aside a little to be able to look at him, her eyes sparkling with happy tears.

“I want you to put that on me. This finger here please,” he pointed at his engagement finger on the right hand. She turned to look at the box again, taking the ring and holding it tightly so it wouldn’t suddenly slip out of her still trembling fingers. With a blurred vision, she took hold of his hand, slowly slipping the ring onto his finger, before turning his hand around and pressing a kiss on his palm.

“It’s beautiful don’t you think?” he commented, taking hold of her right hand and slipping onto her engagement finger a second and much more delicate ring. “With this I’m making it official that I am yours, and you’re mine. Forever.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek.

She was staring at the ring on her hand, her hands trembling even more now, uncontrollable waves of happiness rushing through her. The ring he had put on her finger was a silver band, twisted to the side at the ends with a small diamond in between. It was nothing fancy and yet that was what was so beautiful about it. She ran a finger over the gorgeous piece of craftsmanship, releasing a breath she didn’t realise she had been holding.

“You can choose any date you want for the ceremony,” Yeonghae said with a bright smile on his face as he rested his chin on her shoulder and looked at her trembling hands. He kissed her shoulder and then enveloped her hands with his. “I love you, Meeyon.”

She stared at their hands, at the way his hands covered hers, warmed hers, and then the dam broke and tears started to run down her cheeks. She turned in his arms, wrapping her arms around his middle and sobbing uncontrollably, releasing all the pent up stress, fear and happiness she had felt over the past few days.

He took her in his arms and cuddled her close, not saying anything, just making sure she could cry what she had to, and he could kiss those tears away.

When the sobs started to lessen, she wiped away her tears, letting go of him to lean over to the night table and grab a tissue. When she figured she looked presentable again, she finally looked up at him, lifting a hand to cup his face so she could lean in and kiss him shortly. When she pulled back, she smiled at him. “I love you too, Yeonghae.”

He pulled her right hand to kiss her palm like she did with his. “It’s ok if you want to keep living here, if you can’t cope with my cousins. But the pack got quite big with the pups coming to live with us, so Uncle is thinking of dividing us. We have another place we could move to a much bigger house at that.”

She nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. “I don’t know how to think right now.” she then said, unable to prevent herself from laughing.

“Then don’t think.” He laughed with her before kissing her senseless again.

Yeonghae was making dinner at Meeyon’s house when her home phone started ringing. Right at that moment the door opened and the house’s owner came home, kicking out her shoes and hanging up her coat. “I’ll get it!” she called out, running to the living room to pick up. She called a quick ‘hello sweetie’ to Yeonghae, before picking up. “Hello?”

“It’s true. They are married.” Younghyun’s unmistakable voice sounded at the other side amused.

“Oh, Yeonghae, it’s one of those salesmen again, should I just hang up?” she called out to the kitchen upon recognizing the voice, but a small smile played on her lips.

“Just hang up, love. Dinner is almost ready, so go wash up.” Yeonghae called to her with a joking tone for he had heard Younghyun’s voice perfectly well. Younghyun on the other side growled and demanded some respect to the elders.

“Yes, I agree. Why are you not calling me noona?” she countered still joking, before turning serious. “Okay, tell me, what’s up oppa?”

“Much better. We need Yeonghae for an epic battle.” Younghyun countered with a smile in his voice.

“Why Yeonghae? Get someone else to do it.” she huffed, actually hanging up after that. She walked to the kitchen with the phone still in hand, putting it down next to Yeonghae. “If he really needs you, he’ll call back. I’ll go wash up.” she then told her fiancé, pressing a kiss on his cheek and moving to the bathroom.

When she stepped back inside the living room, Younghyun was playing with his console sprawled in her couch. “Not nice to hang up on my face, dongsaeng.” he commented.

“Says he who steals my boyfriend once every two months at the least.” she retorted, walking up to the couch to pounce on top of Younghyun. “How are you, Hyunnie?”

“To be honest, a little excited and a little terrified. Actually, now Daroll wants to control all of Sosari and is already moving his chess pieces. He is talking with Soohwan right now in an attempt to convince him to expand the wolf’s territory and basically unite his and Soohwan’s. So there will be an epic battle if Dall gains his chess game and become Sosari’s king, or in our vamp dictionary, Prince,” Younghyun sighed, patting her head. “Henry sent you a ‘Miss you so much, Yonnie!’” he tried to imitate the younger vampire.

“Hennie!” she beamed happily upon the mention of the younger’s name, seemingly having gotten nothing of what he had said before. “Is Hennie around too? Is he coming by too?” she then questioned Younghyun, pinching his cheeks in a happy moment.

“Noh. He’s backuh homeh,” He replied while she was pinching his cheeks.

Her face fell and she let go of his face, pouting at him. “Why is Hennie not coming by?” she then questioned. “I will call Hennie and tell him to come by!” A happy grin appeared on her face as she said that, getting up from the couch to go look for the phone.

“Yeonghae, she is cheating on you,” Younghyun teased and Yeonghae came by to glare at him.

“You really don’t have anything better to do?” Younghyun grinned at him.

“Nope. But hey I’m amazed how well you’re taking that silver ring. I mean it’s really silver right?” Yeonghae rolled his eyes.

Right then Meeyon walked over to Yeonghae, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Sweetie, where is the phone?” she asked, pressing a kiss on his lips just because she felt like it. It was obvious that she was having a good day.

“You left it near the stove. I put it up the table where the food is waiting for us.” Yeonghae smiled and also ignored Younghyun who growled and muttered a soft “Why do I still visit them?”

“Hyunnie! Hyunnie! Food is ready!” Meeyon immediately exclaimed, skipping over to Younghyun and ruffling his hair, before suddenly stilling. “Oh I forgot you don’t eat,” she then pouted. “More for me!” With a happy grin she set off to the kitchen, taking hold of Yeonghae’s hand to drag him along with her. Once she settled at the table, she dialled Henry’s number on the phone while serving herself some food.

Henry picked up not long after. “Yonnie!” he greeted happily before adding: “Ni hao, Yeonghae! I hope the silver ring is not bothering you too much.” which made Yeonghae roll his eyes again.

“Hennie!” she beamed back. “Come visit!” She served Yeonghae a big portion of food as well, before putting down the spoon and grabbing her chopsticks to start eating.

“I can only go if Soohwan gives me green card,” Henry pouted. “Why don’t you come and visit me? You can go anywhere!” he gave the idea to which Yeonghae glared at the phone.

“Ohhh!” she beamed, quickly swallowing her bite to be able to give a better answer. “That is a good idea! Do you have time today? After dinner? Tomorrow?”

“It’s better you come tomorrow when Daroll hyung will be back. He can escort you and Hae can come pick you up.” Henry beamed at the other side of the line.

“What day are we tomorrow?” she countered, before replying herself with a: “Oh right Thursday... I’ll call off from work for a day so we have a lot of time to spend,” With a smile on her face she looked up at Yeonghae. “You’re okay with that, right?” she then asked happily. “Picking me up and all?” Yeonghae looked at her for a minute before nodding but saying nothing. He just kept eating silently.

She frowned at the response, cocking her head to the side a little. “We didn’t have anything planned, did we?” she then asked, slightly panicking that she might have forgotten an important appointment or something. “I don’t remember anything being scheduled.”

“We had nothing planned,” Yeonghae retorted with a small smile.

At that Younghyun walked into the kitchen and spoke so Henry could hear. “You’re ruining their dinner time, Mochi,”

“Am I? Oh I am! Yonnie, call me when you’re coming with Dall Hyung! Younghyun, Jin says he’s getting old and that he needs blood.”

“Hennie, can you ask Daroll-ssi if he’s okay with taking me with him?” Meeyon quickly asked. “I’ll go eat now. See you tomorrow! Byebye!” She hung up after the greetings, putting down the phone to be able to decently eat her food. “It’s delicious!” she complimented her boyfriend after a few more bites.

“Years of practice,” he commented before adding. “Sungmin is coming,” which made Younghyun jerk and vanish. Not long after, the doorbell rang and Yeonghae stood up to go greet the vampire. Meeyon kept sitting at the table, continuing her food and picking her mobile phone out of her pocket to text her colleagues she wasn’t coming to work the next day.

Yeonghae came back a few minutes later with a box of chocolates. “Sungmin said he would take you. Daroll already went back home. Looks like my uncle accepted his proposal after all.” Yeonghae informed going back to his food.

“So you’re going to fight?” she questioned, putting her mobile phone away again and glancing around shortly, before deciding that Younghyun was apparently gone as well.

“When the time comes, which is in one or two years from now. If there would be any fight at all.” Yeonghae resumed his eating but kept looking at her.

She nodded shortly, continuing to eat as well as she thought over the past weeks and how her and Yeonghae’s relation had become much more stable. Yet there was one thing that had kept eating at her, ever since her memories of the particular night had come back completely. So it was right in the middle of that dinner that she decided to bring it up again.

“Yeonghae... You know that what I said four years ago still counts, right?” She looked up at him, skimming his face with her eyes.

He stopped eating, he put his chopsticks down and looked intently at her. “Whenever I’m forced to go to battle those words became the reason for me to come back. Because of you, I don’t even want to go.” his words were firm but soft.

She nodded slightly, reaching out a hand over the table to put on top of his. She caressed the back of his hand with her thumb, looking at their hands for a moment before looking back up at him with a smile. “Let’s get married soon,” she then said. “My mother’s dying to know when the ceremony will be.”

He pulled her right hand to kiss it. “You say the date and we make it true.”

“I’d say tomorrow, but since we have to give our guests some time to get ready... Next month?” she replied without a single hesitation.

“I think in two weeks all my guests are more than ready,” Yeonghae countered with a childish grin.

“Yes, but mine aren’t,” she retorted. “My mother will be inviting every family member we have left. Watch her invite the whole neighbourhood too.”

Yeonghae laughed. “Mom is just happy, no? Ok let’s get her time to invite the whole city if she wants.”

“I think she thought I’d never find anyone to live with, let alone get married. No idea why, though,” she retorted with a short huff, but then her smile returned. “Should I call her to tell her so she can start planning invitations?”

“You do that after you finish dinner, darling.” Yeonghae smiled and pointed at the food.

She looked down at her only half finished bowl, before sighing and letting go of his hand. “I’d much rather eat you,” she dejectedly mumbled, but picked up her chopsticks anyway to continue eating.

“I’m the dessert.” Yeonghae winked not missing a beat and resuming eating as well. She chuckled at that, eating a little faster as if to indicate she couldn’t wait for that particular dessert.

The next morning at around seven, the doorbell rang. Meeyon was already up and dressed, having just finished with preparing breakfast. She walked over to the door, opening it to see who was there so early in the morning.

Sungmin bowed to her greeting a good morning. “Meeyon-ssi. I came to pick you up as Yeonghae asked me to.” he smiled.

“This early?” she questioned in surprise. “I just finished making breakfast! Would you mind if I ate before we left? You can ea.. Nevermind that. You can wait in the living room or something?”

“Sure. I was out with Kangdae and Seungi. We were hunting as pass time, they went back home to sleep and I came here. Figured I could wait for you to get ready,” He stepped inside and walked to the living room with a pleasant smile on his face. “Did you have a good night?” he questioned with a subtle evil edge to the grin on his face as he sat on the couch.

“Yes, I had some wonderful dreams. Haven’t slept as great in a while,” she retorted nonchalantly, not noticing the evilness behind his question. “I’ll see if Yeonghae’s up yet.” She walked to the bedroom, opening the door slowly and peeking inside.

“Sungmin is too early,” Yeonghae growled turning on the bed and looking up at her with an annoyed face. She smiled, walking into the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

“You can continue sleeping once we’re gone,” she contradicted him, leaning down to give him a good morning peck. “I made breakfast already, so there will be food once you get up. I’m going to eat and then leave, okay?”

Yeonghae looked up at her for a minute before nodding with a sigh. “Good morning, love.” he reached a hand to pull her closer again asking for a real good morning kiss.

She smiled, allowing him that longer kiss. As she pulled away again, she ruffled his hair. “Hey, I’m just going to see Henry,” she then scolded warmheartedly. “I haven’t seen him in a while and the last time wasn’t exactly fun. Don’t be jealous.” She smiled at him.

He pouted at that. He knew she was right but he was jealous and jealousy was his weak point. Not that he would let her know how week that point made him. “Take care and whatever they say, I want you back for dinner,” The words were a subtle order but his tone was totally pleading.

She chuckled, leaning in once more for another peck. “I wouldn’t miss your dinner for all the money in the world,” she then reassured him, before turning slightly joking again. “But no stalking today, okay?”

He pouted even more rolling to the other side of the bed. “Daroll didn’t allow me to go while you’re there. I can only pick you up at the limit line.” he assured his no stalking mode for the day.

“It seems your friends know you too well,” she teased, standing up straight again. “Will you stay in bed or will you come say bye?”

“I’ll go say bye. But I’ll wash up first.” He rolled back to her side to stand up and give her a morning bear hug. She smiled, letting him squish her as much as he wanted, as if she knew how hard it was for him to let her go see Henry. When he let go again, she placed a last kiss on his lips, turning away then to go eat her breakfast. She did that in quite a hurry, finishing her plate in a record time and quickly gathering her bag and some of her basic stuff – mobile phone, wallet.

Yeonghae gave Sungmin a series of ‘take care, watch over her, nothing of bites, no offering blood, and give her only normal food’ orders to which Sungmin paid no attention and Meeyon could not even hear. Once they were out, Sungmin drove his sport car all the way to their territory – some nice district quite far away from the centre of Sosari where Yeonghae lived with his pack.

“Henry sounded very happy on the phone, but why do I feel you’re not really going just to say hi and play with him?” Sungmin questioned when they were about five minutes in silence.

“Because I am not,” she immediately replied. “I’m also going to cuddle him, pounce on him, molest him, make him my slave and punch him.” She turned her head slightly to glance at Sungmin, a vague smile gracing her expression.

“I won’t tell Yeonghae if you don’t,” Sungmin shook his head and paid attention to his driving. “Mind if I turn on the radio? I don’t like silence... Unless you want to question me about anything and we can keep a conversation going till we get to our mansion.”

“What exactly is this whole prince of the city stuff about?” she immediately questioned him, which lead to a thorough explanation about the vampire hierarchy and Daroll’s wish to become the leader of all the vampires in Sosari that lasted well until they reached the vampire mansion.

“All in all, With Daroll becoming the prince we can lead the vampires to have our life style and so Yeonghae would have less fights against our kind and the wolves will be allowed to hunt through the whole city. Satisfied?” Sungmin questioned with a grin while he was parking his car.

Meeyon chuckled. “Well I wanted to ask some more information about vampires, but since I only have today, I think I’ll leave that for another time.” she replied, getting out of the car.

“Yonnie!” Henry came bouncing her way and Sungmin locked his car. “I think Henry will answer your questions if you have more, now if you excuse me, I’m going to eat.” Sungmin flashed his fangs at her and left to hop onto a nearby motorcycle and leave again.

“Aah so jealous! I want to go out with the sun too!” Henry pouted holding onto Meeyon.

She hugged him back, but huffed at his words. “You’d rather go out than spend time with me?” she retorted in mock offense, but soon she was grinning again, muzzling her nose against his cheek. “How have you been, Hennie? I haven’t seen you in ages! I’m sorry about last time too...”

“I meant on the days I don’t have you visiting me!” Henry protested with mock despair. But then he turned serious and pulled her close. “I guess I just turned things worse... But I don’t like the side of Yeonghae that is able to give up on his love. I just wanted you to bring him back.”

She chuckled again, lifting her hand to show off her precious ring. “Mission accomplished?” she then said in a joking tone, turning her hand after a moment so she could look at it herself once more as well. Henry nodded and pulled her hand to look at the ring. A warm smile gracing his cold and pale features.

“I’m glad Younghyun noticed the ridden had a silver dagger back then, otherwise I’m not even sure if I would be talking to you right now.” Henry sighed and then took hold of her hand to pull her inside.

“What do you mean?” she asked, not seeing the connection between a ridden with a silver dagger and her talking to Henry. She followed him inside without protest, however, curiously looking around the house as she walked through it. It was surprisingly adventurous to be walking through a vampire mansion.

“What? Younghyun never boasted to you for saving Yeonghae? That time Yeonghae asked me to look after you when he was healing... The ridden attacked Yeonghae with a silver dagger but Younghyun noticed it before Yeonghae, so before the dagger was fully in, Younghyun pulled Yeonghae back. Younghyun made a ‘mop the floor’ with that ridden so furious he became...” Henry explained not understanding why his hyung never threw his cocky talk about it to her. He had to listen to the tale for a whole year.

She stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing that. “He did?” she asked, taking in that new information. “A silver dagger? So.. Yeonghae almost died?”

Henry stopped as well and he finally understood why Younghyun had never said anything. Oh he would be nagged to eternity for that. “If the dagger had perforated his lungs. Yes. The attack had been aimed to his heart but he dodged at the last minute. Of course not enough so...” He stopped talking because he was just saying more things he shouldn’t. But Meeyon had to know how much her love meant to Yeonghae. Back then they were not together yet and Yeonghae had thought he would never have a chance with her.

She stared at him, the reality of Yeonghae almost dying slowly seeping through to her. After a moment of silence she turned slightly, looking around for a moment as if people would magically appear then. “Is Younghyun home right now?” she then asked.

Henry shook his head. “Chungyeol hyung sent him on an epic quest to find a certain vampire with a flaming sword. Chungyeol hyung wants the weapon and he is not allowed to come back without it,” The boy shrugged. “This is our main living room.” and he showed her a fabulous and spacious room in Victorian style, there were glass doors leading to side gardens and a majestic staircase. “Do you want to stay here or we can go to my room.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “And exactly what do you think we will be doing in your room?” she questioned him seriously, a hint of I-know-what-you’re-up-to in her voice.

“Show you my collection of plushies,” he pouted at her and then walked to the couch in the living room.

She chuckled, immediately running after him and pouncing on top of him, curling her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “Hennie, I missed you!” she then happily shrieked next to his ear. “Take me to your room where the plushies are!”

Henry chuckled and ran at inhuman speed to his room at the second floor of the house. When he stopped at his door he questioned her. “How does it feel to run almost as fast as the sound?”

She clung to his neck still, but felt a little dazed at the suddenness with which she had been moved from the living to his room, slowly unwrapping her legs from around him and letting herself slide down to the ground. “I think I still prefer normal human speed, or car speed at most,” she replied with a tiny voice. “I also think I will sit down for a bit.” With that, she opened the door to his room, stepping inside only to stop the moment her eyes took in the room.

It was huge, to begin with, but what was even more surprising was the amount and the kind of furniture gathered inside. If she had any eye for antiques, she’d probably value the room on a sum that could not be paid by any living human being. Almost scared to touch anything, she stepped further into the room, looking around at the soft beige wall, the wooden wardrobe and chairs, the waterbed,... If she didn’t know Henry, she’d probably have promptly kneeled down in front of him at that moment, thinking he was a king or a prince at the very least.

“Wow...” was all she could stammer instead.

“At that all I have to say is: so happy I have a sire that is older than the Believer age and that had been clever enough to keep money stored since then.” Henry beamed at her astonishment and closed the door behind her.

“Who is your sire anyway?” she asked, turning around to look at him. “Daroll? Chungyeol?” She looked away again then to take in more of his room.

“It’s Daroll, he transformed all of us, the first being Chungyeol,” Henry skipped to a particular wardrobe and opened it revealing a very large collection of plushies. “I was not lying.”

She immediately skipped over to the wardrobe as well, looking at the plushies with obvious amazement. “This is a wonderful collection!” she exclaimed, before joking: “I think I’m reconsidering marrying Yeonghae. You’re a much better option. Rich, owns plushies, doesn’t get stolen by Younghyun all the time, offers me everlasting life,..”

“I guess that was a hint on ‘I want to know more about blood dolls’ right?” he questioned and looked at her, picking up a hamster plushie to cuddle it and then going to his king sized waterbed.

She frowned. “It wasn’t yet, but if you’re taking it as one; yes, do tell me,” she then said, following him to the bed and easily cuddling up to him.

“First of all why do you want to know?” he questioned softly staring at the toy in his hand.

“Everything. Good points, bad points, how it works exactly, what the effects are, how long a human can live off vampire blood...”

He sighed. “Meeyon, I asked WHY not WHAT.”

She blinked. “First you’re all happy about me wanting to learn about you, now you’re asking why I’m curious?” she replied. “Just tell me.”

“If you become my blood doll you will live for as long as I exist, or for as long as you have vampire vitae. The legends say that once a vampire bites a human, either he dies or he’ll become a vampire. That’s bullshit. We kill if we want and we change whom we want. We have a kind of ritual to change humans into vampires, for that we’d have to drink the human blood and before his last breath give our blood for the human to drink, that’s how we change a human into a vampire.” Henry started not wanting to press more, he just kept on believing she was asking for Yeonghae.

She nodded, resting her head in the crook of his neck and listening to him like that, completely relaxed. “Does it form a bond with the vampire? I mean, there’s no love, obviously, because Chungyeol and Jia have it, but something deeper or so?”

“There’s love yes. But it doesn’t mean Jia and Chungyeol are gay. Don’t tell them I told you. When Chungyeol hyung met Jia, he was still learning our rituals to overcome our weaknesses. The sun harms us and it can destroy us, but our clan learned how to use magic to resist. We are called Dragons for that. Well Chungyeol’s endurance was failing and he was still far from home when he stumbled onto Jia. Hyung protected Jia from a hungry and kind of crazed group of vampires which made him pass out. When he woke up again he was inside a bedroom with the curtains closed and he was already healing, but he was extremely thirsty. So when Jia entered the room and offered some food you can guess what food Chungyeol took, but he was sure Jia had saved his existence so he didn’t kill him. Hyung stayed with him for a few days, hiding in the room from the sun and feeding from Jia until he was perfectly fine. He went back home then, where he told Daroll what happened. But Chungyeol could not forget the poor human that helped him, so after a couple years he went looking for Jia and brought him home, they raised Jia until he almost died due to some disease. Chungyeol said he couldn’t take the life that had rescued him so he offered his blood instead. His vitae cured Jia, but every time Chungyeol stopped giving his blood, the disease would return, so he vowed to keep Jia alive for as long as he himself exists. But of course being a Blood Doll is somewhat sad for the human.” Henry spoke softly, almost afraid Chungyeol could hear him.

“But it can’t all be sunshine and happiness,” she protested. “Aren’t there like some side effects or something? I mean; a human drinking blood is already a weird thing, but all this vampire vitae thing must have some bad effects too. Say a healthy human starts drinking the blood, will he or she get sick if they can no longer drink it or something like that?”

“You can say our blood is like a drug. It gives a human strength and agility and he also stops aging, but once he stops drinking he’ll crave for more. Plus the human starts aging again but it’s a very accelerated process. For example, if you start drinking blood and you drink it for twenty years, once you stop, you will age those twenty years in a few seconds... Can you imagine what will happen to Jia if he stops drinking blood? He is much older than Sungmin and he has over 700 years.” Henry started playing with the plushie in his hands.

“So once the vampire dies, the blood doll is very likely to die too, unless he or she finds another vampire to drink from?” she continued her questioning, unaware of what he was doing, as she had her eyes closed.

“Yes. But another very important side effect of drinking vampire blood and forging a Blood Doll sire hood is that the human also loses his will power. Whatever the vampires orders the human to do, he will obey. Always and with no means to object. The human basically becomes a slave, a blood stringed doll.” Henry kept going on.

She nodded. “I see... So if Chungyeol would tell Jia to jump off a cliff, Jia will do it without second thoughts?”

“Yes. But he wouldn’t die,” Henry laughed slightly.

She snorted. “Well that’s useful then.”

For a moment she let a silence fall between them, gathering everything he had told her and settling it in her mind. “Can a vampire have more than one blood doll?” she then asked.

“Yes, but it would prove to be troublesome. We get weak once we give blood, so having two Blood dolls is the max one should have according to our sire. Chungyeol has Jia and Elena, Younghyun has Jihoon and Silke, Sungmin had no blood doll like me, but he accepted to give blood to Kevin.”

She nodded again, leaving another moment of silence, which she used to stretch her limbs and then cling to Henry again. “Why are you so nice to cuddle?”

“Because I’m your favourite vampire. Or maybe because I’m younger and so I am more freshly human.” Henry laughed making his plush doll give Meeyon a kiss on the cheek.

She giggled, picking the plush doll from his hands and making it give him a kiss back. That resulted into them having an epic who-can-make-the-plush-doll-kiss-who-more-fight which only ended when Meeyon gave him an actual kiss on his cheek and then happily crawled up from the bed, demanding to get ice cream. The rest of the day was spent much like that; Henry and Meeyon just messing around, teasing each other, having useless conversations and occasionally asking another question about vampires and their rarities.

The evening came much too soon for her, yet at the same time she of course looked forward to being with Yeonghae again. When the doorbell rang, she followed Henry anyway when he went to open it, happily peeking over his shoulder to see if it was the one she was expecting or someone else still. It was Younghyun coming back from the epic quest holding a case and a tired face.

Immediately Meeyon and Henry stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind him. “You look horrible,” she told him as he passed by.

Before he could reply though, Chungyeol came running downstairs with a happy smile. “Hyunnie, you’re finally back! Where’s my baby?!” He clapped his hands like a child in front of Younghyun who sighed and passed him the long case.

“Next time you say you want me to get a flaming blade do tell me the guy who owns it won’t want to give it to me.” Younghyun growled and Chungyeol patted his head.

“Good to know you found it more dangerous to come back without it,” he said and then the red haired vampire rushed back upstairs shouting ‘Hyunbaby brought my sword home!’ At the top of the stair Meeyon could see a very beautiful woman with red hair as well and a quite interesting brown outfit.

She kept looking at the woman as Chungyeol swept her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her lips, only to then drag her into their room again, muttering more about his nice new sword. A soft chuckle left Meeyon while she turned her head back to the people around her, but the sound died away when she saw Younghyun and remembered what Henry had said.

“You...” she suddenly spoke, her voice a lot darker than it usually was.

Younghyun turned to her alarmed at the sudden tone. “Me?”

The next moment the first moving thing close to her was sent flying his way, the glass vase she had made sure was nothing too valuable colliding with his face in an instant and breaking into a million pieces.

“I hope that hurt,” she then said, before moving closer and suddenly clinging to him in a hug. “Thank you for saving Yeonghae, but don’t ever keep something like that from me again.”

It did hurt his pride for not dodging the vase, and it would hurt later when Daroll found out. “No. Daroll will make me hurt much more later, so take that as you hurting me.... And sure, I save him a lot, really, no biggie. I didn’t say anything back then because you were all cold towards him and then you two were totally madly in love so why would I come to you and say ‘Hey he almost died but no worries I saved him’?” He gave a hug back but soon let go. “Silke! I need love! Jin I need food!” He then shouted, walking away.

She shook her head dejectedly, before turning back to Henry, walking up to him for another cuddle. Right when she wrapped her arms around him, the bell rang again, making her sigh slightly. “They have to wait; first cuddle.” she muttered, pressing herself close to him for a moment.

“It’s Yeonghae.” Henry advised.

“Cuddle,” she repeated. “Otherwise I’ll find another vase.” And there were his arms around her in a split second. No one wanted Daroll’s fury for losing his collection items. The doorbell rang again soon after, though. She enjoyed the hug for a moment longer, before pulling free and pulling him to the door by his hand, careful not to step on any shards of glass. When she opened up for Yeonghae, she didn’t release her grip on Henry’s hand, merely smiling at her boyfriend in greeting.

Yeonghae looked at her with a small smile as he entered, giving Henry a small greeting and moving closer to Meeyon to give her a kiss on the cheek, but before he could say or do anything, Daroll was at the top of the stairs greeting them and sending his apologies for not greeting Meeyon when she arrived. He was busy dealing with the Vampire council.

“Would you stay and have dinner here? I’m sure Jihoon prepared a feast by this time.” The vampire’s leader invited politely.

“I don’t have any problem with that if Meeyon wants to stay a little longer. I think she wants to spend much more time with Henry.” Yeonghae commented bowing to the elder.

“Well... I need to confess something.” Meeyon piped up, turning to Daroll. “I broke your vase.”

Daroll looked at her and smiled. “Fortunately that one is an imitation. Something was telling me not to let the original there today. Not because of you, but because Chungyeol got his flaming sword and I was afraid he would try to test it here.”

“Lucky me,” she grinned, before turning to Yeonghae again, her expression taking on the same kind of dark look she had used on Younghyun. “Well then, mister I-won’t-tell-my-girlfriend-that-I-almost-died, you wanted to stay here for dinner knowing Chungyeol’s got a new blade?”

Yeonghae widened his eyes at her and then turned to look at Henry who gave him a small smile. The uratha sighed to that. “From what I heard his new blade is much more dangerous to vampires than to werewolves. I will probably heal instantly if he attacks me.” Yeonghae shrugged.

Daroll eyed the two, having expected some different treatment. “The blood dolls must be at the dining hall, please follow me,” he then said. Yeonghae immediately walked after him, not exactly waiting for Meeyon.

“I’m sorry, Daroll-ssi, I’ll have to excuse myself. Someone told me to be home for dinner.” she spoke, still at the door, letting go of Henry’s hand so he could follow his sire. The vampire quickly left the room and Yeonghae turned to Meeyon, his expression blank.

“Do you really want to go?” he questioned simply.

She cocked her head to the side, countering his question with a new one. “Do you really want to stay?”

Yeonghae walked to her. “I’ll stay if you want to, we’ll go back if you want to, I’ll make dinner if you want to. I told Henry to bring you to the limit of our territory one hour ago, but you didn’t show up no matter how much I waited, so I called Daroll and he allowed me to come inside. Henry hardly forgets what he’s asked to do.” Yeonghae countered.

“Your point being?” she asked, feeling as if he was criticising her.

“I came here to pick you up because you didn’t come back to where we had an appointment. That’s my point. I’m asking if you want to spend more time with Henry today or not.” Yeonghae replied trying to calm down his trembling.

“I didn’t know we had an appointment. If you ask Henry to bring me to the limit of your territory one hour beforehand, then how can I know?” she protested, her tone still calm, but as she kept on talking, slowly growing more annoyed. “You said you’d come pick me up, so I waited until you came to pick me up. I didn’t even know you originally weren’t allowed inside the territory. I don’t read minds like you, I don’t foresee the future like you, I’m just a normal human being, okay! I eat, I breathe, I sleep and I die!” By the end of her words her voice broke and she stopped to swallow, willing the tears away. She really didn’t want to fight with him about something so trivial in the vampires’ house.

Yeonghae looked at her with hurt visible in his eyes. The moment they opened the door he could hardly smell her scent. She had spent so much time cuddling with Henry that his smell was all over her and it pained him. When she spoke harshly with him it was another stab, and now she even forgot what for him meant life and death.

He lowered his head as he retorted, voice composed and calm, the total opposite of how he was feeling inside. “You don’t need to read minds or foresee the future to remember something I told you this morning. And how could I tell you that I almost died during that fight practically right after you confessed you had feelings for me? That I almost died because I believed your attraction for me had disappeared in a month’s time. Or that I was so devastated that I didn’t care if I would die or not. No matter how it is told, it would sound as if you were to blame for my injury and I didn’t want you to carry that. And just for the record; I also eat, I also breathe, I also sleep and I also die, if you forgot that as well.”

She heaved a deep sigh before replying. “You’re right. I’m sorry. We had fun today and we must have both forgotten about that. I was assuming you’d pick me up here.” she said, her voice softened back to the normal tone. She ran a hand over her face, before looking at him again, not knowing where to go from there.

He walked closer with the intention of holding her and say everything was ok, but the moment he was one step away from touching her, he stopped. Henry’s smell lingering on her was tormenting him, so he pulled his hands back and just stood there, not wanting to step back but unable to reach forward. “Do you... Do you want to stay? We’d be home too late for dinner anyway.” One way or another he forced the words out.

Somehow the way he stopped a mere step away from her, even reconsidering about reaching out to her, cut deep. She sighed, before taking that last step herself and pressing a peck on his lips, taking that step back again then. “I’m not too hungry, but if you want to eat we can stay.” she then offered.

“Let’s go bid them goodbye, then. I’m not exactly in the mood to socialize here.” He sighed a little in contentment for her peck. He turned on his heels and with a slightly hesitant move reached a hand backwards for her. She took it without a hesitation, following after him to the dining room but deciding to let him do all the talking. It felt awkward, being in the vampires’ presence when they knew she and Yeonghae had just fought.

In the dining hall only Daroll and Henry were present from the vampires, but all humans were present. There was Jia who waved to her, Jihoon whom she had seen only twice in all those years, Kevin whom she had just heard about but had never been formally acquainted with, Silke, Younghyun’s companion – a very beautiful blond girl – and Elena, the red haired woman she saw before, Chungyeol’s companion. Meeyon just lerned Elena would soon join the vampire number in the house and would also be the first not to be Daroll’s progeny.

Yeonghae sent his pack’s greetings and bid goodbye with a few words. He sent Henry some kind of silent message of sorrow before turning around and going out of the mansion with Meeyon. Once they reached his car, he opened the door for her and moved to get to the driver’s seat. As soon as he was settled he asked Meeyon to open the window as he opened his, something he had never done before. She frowned, looking at the window he opened and then at her own.

“Why?” she countered, opening her own window as well, but still wanting to know what his reasons were.

He eyed her slightly doubtful. “I can hardly take in your scent...” he pondered how to explain.

For a moment she stared at him, frowning in confusion, before her expression cleared. “Do I smell like Henry?” she then guessed.

He nodded and focused on taking them back home. “It’s not exactly pleasurable,” he commented.

She sighed to that. “I’m sorry, I’ll shower and change clothes once we get home.” she mumbled, turning to look at the passing houses.

For a moment the ride was filled with the city’s noise much to Yeonghae’s discomfort. Trying to take his mind from the noise, he tried to make some small talk with her and concentrate on her voice. “How was your day?”

“Fine,” was all she replied to that, however, staring outside a moment longer, before suddenly closing her window. “You should get used to it,” she stated, turning to look at him.

He took hold of the steering wheel tighter before asking with a low voice. “Why? You’ll come home smelling like him more often?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll be gone from home to spend time with him for sure, so I guess I’ll smell like him too, yes.” Her eyes scanned his face for a moment longer, before she turned to look outside again. He didn’t speak anymore after that and once he parked in front of her apartment he didn’t make any movement to get out.

She started to get out, unbuckling her seatbelt and checking if she left anything, but when he remained seated, she stopped moving as well, looking at him. “You’re not coming?”

“I need to hunt,” he rested his forehead on the steering wheel. “And you said you’re not hungry so no need for me to cook.”

“You need to hunt or you’re running away?”

“I need to hunt,” he looked at her but instead of seeing his soft brown eyes, she faced those light luminous blue ones of his wolf form. “Please, get inside,” She got out of the car at that, closing the door and walking into the house. The next moment she had her phone in her hand, dialling Henry’s number and making her way over to her bedroom as she called.

“Meeyon?” Henry answered, his tone extremely surprised.

“If I wanted to become your blood doll, would you let me?” she immediately inquired, sitting down on her bed and staring at her night table. All of a sudden she realised she hadn’t taken any pictures yet since she had been together with Yeonghae. There was nothing to remember him by, nothing to look at while he was gone.

“If there was no Yeonghae in the equation I would, Meeyon.” Henry replied without hesitation.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, staring in silence a moment longer, before sighing. “I’ll hang up again now,” she then said, slowly forming the plan in her head and thinking of ways how to execute them.

“Do you love him that much?” Henry asked before she could hang up.

“I wish it was obvious enough for you to not have to ask me,” she replied, even softer than before. “Whenever he goes I can just go with him, knowing my time is long gone, but he... I don’t want him to lose balance. It’s bad enough already now that I’m still alive,” She smiled sadly at her reflection in the bedroom mirror. “I just need to find a way to convince him.”

“Then that, my dear, is your personal, epic battle. If ever you win, then you know where to find blood.” Henry replied with an obvious smile in his words.

“Thank you, Henry, it means a lot to me,” she said softly. “I need to take a shower now. Apparently I stink of you.” She allowed herself a small chuckle.

Henry huffed. “I have the greatest smell among the vampires but I guess any other male smell on you would stink for Yeonghae. I’m off to feed too, sun’s finally out of my way.” He chuckled after as well.

“Have a good dinner, Hennie,” she told him. “I hope to talk to you soon, perhaps seeing will take a while. I need to work this jealousy thing out with Yeonghae first,” She smiled. “Take care, okay?” With that, she hung up, really going to shower then, even though she knew Yeonghae would not come to her anymore that evening.

The next day when she arrived home from work, Yeonghae was eating popcorn on her couch while watching a comedy. There was a soft smile gracing his features but when she entered, it vanished into an expression filled with regrets.

She kicked out her shoes and hung up her jacket as usual, grabbing her bag and walking to the living room with it. It was only then that she noticed him sitting there, and a smile immediately pulled up the corners of her lips. She walked over to him, but stopped halfway.

“Can I give you a kiss or should I go shower first?” she half-joked, half seriously asked.

He pouted at her. “Many mixed smells but yours is still distinct, I’m fine with that.” he gave her his truth. She smiled at that, closing the distance between them and kissing him. It didn’t stay with a mere peck when she wrapped her arms around his neck and sank down onto his lap.

Since those moments were quite rare in Yeonghae’s point of view he shut the world and focused all his senses on her, responding and taking his tests to see how far he could go. She let him enjoy it for quite a while, before putting her hands on his chest and slowly pushing him back a little. There was a smile on her face as she rested her forehead on his shoulder, allowing her breath to even out.

He rested his chin on her shoulder, but kept drawing circles on her lower back with his hand as if trying to help her calm down. After a while she lifted her head again, gently cupping his face with her hands. “Did you feel that?” she then asked.

He looked at her confused but with a feeling he knew where she was coming from. “Feel what?” therefore he questioned pretty much guessing her answer.

She smiled. “Me loving you. Do you feel it? Do I still make you doubt that?” she then explained.

He smiled back pulling her to his embrace and surrounding her with his warmth. “I don’t doubt your love. But lately I doubt if I should really be the one to receive it. I hate it when I think someone could be a better match for you.” he confessed.

“I think you should let me decide who I give my love to, no?” she countered, a soft chuckle following her words. “I’ve been happy with you for the past four years. I don’t want anyone else. Leave that choice to me, because I’ve already made it. I love you, only you and even if someone else could make me fifty thousand times happier, I’d still love only you.”

“That’s irrational,” he commented but couldn’t help smile. “Why do you love me that much then?” He inquired softly.

“Because you are you. You are handsome, kind, funny, you make me laugh...” she started summing up. “And because you love me too, you try to give me the best I can have, you only want to see me happy. Even this feeling of yours proves that. You think I might be better with someone else so you’re willing to give me up if that would make me happier.” There was a smile on her face as she ran her fingers through his hair. “But don’t. Let’s make a deal that you don’t give me up and I won’t give you up.”

He thought for a while. “I don’t want to give you up,” he offered her. “I want to be with you for as long as I can.”

“So do I...” she mumbled, loosely wrapping her arms around his neck as she turned more serious. “Yeonghae, I want to ask you something. I’ll give you time to think it over decently and I will take your opinion into consideration as well once you decide, but you have to promise to listen to me first.”

He stiffened at those words. “I’m... Listening...” She smiled at that again, but felt slightly nervous as well.

“Also remember what I just said; I love you and only you, don’t doubt that, okay?” For a moment she looked him in the eyes, before glancing down as she formulated her idea. “I want to become Henry’s Blood Doll,” she then said, immediately continuing before he could freak out like the first – and last – time she started to him about that. “Now before you protest... I’ve asked Henry all about it, the positive effects as well as the downsides, how it works exactly and everything he could tell me. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time – and when I say a long time I mean ever since I first saw Jia – and I decided I can take the drinking vampire blood and the bond it forges between Henry and me if that means I will be with you for as long as you live.”

His expression was blank, his mind in overdrive, her last words repeating itself over and over again. ‘I will be with you for as long as you live’. He had forced himself to accept that he was going to long after her until his last breath, that he would treasure the small part of his life span he shared with her, that his time with her was limited, and there she was saying she would give up part of her humanity if she could live for as long as he lived? Blood Dolls were taboo for werewolves, because it meant sharing the only love of their lives with someone else, someone not human, someone that could easily betray them. Even if he doubted Henry could do such a thing. He didn’t know what to answer, because it would be unfair to his cousins and any other uratha to keep his lover while they were forced to live without them.

She dared to glance up at him again, trying to gauge his reaction. Since his eyes at least weren’t changing colours, she found it safe enough to continue.

“I don’t know what boundaries that would cross or how complicated it would be for anyone, so I want you to think about it and talk to whoever you need to talk to. It’s okay to wait a few years even, for me, I’m fine with turning forty before it happens, I just... I don’t want to leave you behind.” She leaned back slightly, taking her arms from around his neck and giving him the opportunity to push her away if he wanted to.

The additional information made him focus his gaze on her and he thanked Luna for being on her crescent days, but the moment she took her arms from around his neck he panicked inside and his hands firmly grabbed her by the waist to not allow her to move away any inch more.

“Do you trust Henry with all your heart?” he found himself asking in half a daze.

When he took hold of her middle, she couldn’t help a smile from appearing on her face. She leaned closer again, pecking him shortly before replying.

“He has always been there when you couldn’t be. At first you sent him, but even that time he willingly offered to listen if I needed it. He’s had many opportunities to let you down but he never did and I know he cares about me enough to never do in the future either,” she replied. “I trust him like I trust my mother,” She frowned slightly at that. “Well, a little less, since my mother does not survive on drinking humans’ blood.”

He nodded at that but was still too dazed to react. He was torn between being selfish and saying ‘yes’ right then and there, and being a real brother by saying ‘no’ and like the others pass through the pain of losing his companion. He pulled her into his embrace and locked her there, until her tummy protested for food.

When it did, she chuckled, but merely cuddled closer to him. “I’ll make sure I smell like nothing but you for the following days.” she then said, pressing a kiss on the skin of his neck.

“I’d love that, Meeyon.” he moved his head so he could make her kiss his lips instead. She took that offer willingly, kissing him and this time letting him take it wherever he wanted.


	8. Last Quarter

The next month passed with a new routine. From time to time Meeyon would go visit the vampire mansion and get to know each member of Daroll’s household better – humans and vampires alike. Of course the bond with Henry, Younghyun and Jia only got stronger, but Chungyeol being Chungyeol tried to get close to her as well, to the point he even showed her his weapon collection and performed some incredible martial dance for her with Sungmin – in very slow motion as they claimed.

But other than spending time with the vampires, she also spent much more time going out with her mother and Sunhi. The first more to find her some nice wedding dress; and the latter to prepare her baby’s wardrobe. To Sunhi, it was also a subtle attempt on making Meeyon want to have kids with Yeonghae.

Her mother was elated about the wedding to say the least, so everything was ready quite fast. The invites were nicely designed, printed and distributed, the dress was ordered from a famous design as a gift from Soohwan – the same that had designed Sunhi’s and Simon’s wedding clothes.

Yeonghae spent one month of dealing with human socializing and his hunt hours, barely having time to sleep and do his job as song-writer. So it was no surprise that he was annoyed to death and the only thing keeping him sane was of course Meeyon’s attention when they had quality time ALONE.

The ceremony was pretty much like Sunhi’s, they shared votes of undying love till death did them part, signed the papers. Younghyun and Silke were Yeonghae’s witnesses while Simon and Sunhi were Meeyon’s. The newlyweds left on honeymoon to some tropical paradise – gift from the vampires as Henry was annoying enough.

All in all their wedding was one big, wonderful event and all her colleagues kept fawning over the beautiful things her friends had given her – including that priceless honeymoon. She could only smile and agree with them, earning herself the title of ‘rich people’s friend’ without really wanting to.

But marrying Yeonghae proved to be a good step for their relationship, as it seemed to cool his jealousy a little when she spent time with other guys, and she felt much more at ease herself as well, being much less on edge whenever she thought about his real identity and the amounts of fights he had to go to. They got a very healthy relationship, trusting in each other and loving each other without fail.

A few months later, Sunhi and Simon’s baby was born, a healthy young boy, very calm compared to other werewolves babies. Maybe he inherited much more of Simon’s traits than Sunhi’s, but in Meeyon’s point of view he was still loud and drooled a lot.

In the years that followed, life went back to normal. About a year after her marriage, Meeyon grew a little tired of her job and decided to quit it. For a few months she took up several language courses to learn English and French, after which she found herself a nice job in the customer service of a big international company. Her new job suited her liking much more, with more appealing hours and especially a better pay. She never moved out of her apartment, however, because the only bigger ones lay outside of the werewolves’ territory.

Her mother mentioned kids a few times at the beginning of the marriage, but when it became clear even marrying hadn’t changed Meeyon’s mind yet, the questions were dropped again. Life continued like it was, her by Yeonghae’s side, Yeonghae hunting on several nights, her working diligently to pay for her own food and house, and them interacting with their friends. If she forgot about the times Yeonghae was gone during the nights, she could almost call it a normal life.

It was one mild summer night when Meeyon woke up in an empty bed as Yeonghae was out hunting. Usually she would just turn around and continue to sleep, but something made her get up that night, walking to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and got out the apple juice to pour herself a glass. For some reason she felt like eating something, but when she looked through the fridge and cupboards there was nothing suiting her liking, despite the kitchen being filled with food.

So she went back to her bedroom, put on some clothes and grabbed her phone and wallet. Not ten minutes later she stepped out of the apartment building, turning left and setting off to the night store she knew was not too far away from there.

The night was apparently calm and the streets were practically empty. Now and then a car would pass by in a high speed but the night was still appealing for her. She was about to reach the night store, when she noticed someone at the other side of the road looking at her.

For a moment she hesitated, looking at the person more openly, before deciding she didn’t know him and just continuing her path. She could already see the lights of the store about fifty meters away from her, looking forward to buying herself some vanilla ice cream and milk so she could make a milkshake.

There were not many people inside and she quickly found what she was looking for, paying for the food and thanking the cashier for adding some chocolate sweet as the store advertise.

When she was halfway back home, that same man was following her, but still walking on the other side of the road. She didn’t notice him however, too focused on the idea of her milkshake and the other things she could have for her midnight snack as she turned around a corner.

There she bumped into someone, however, losing her grasp on the plastic bag as two powerful arms held her and a sharp pain in her neck was the last thing she registered before everything turned dark and her brain was forced to shut down.

When she woke up again, she was anywhere but at home. It was quite a nice room, something reminding her of Daroll’s house, but it certainly was not one of his many rooms. Especially the decoration was ugly in her point of view and totally not fitting with Daroll’s nice taste for decorations.

Her hands were tied to the bed’s backrest with handcuffs. She was still wearing all her clothes, but her shoes were gone. She panicked then, looking around the room again to see if there was something that could point her out where she was. She remained silent as she struggled to get her hands free or to see something that could help her understand what was going on.

It didn’t take long for the door to be opened and some very tall and handsome guy to step in. Many familiar things registered in her once the lights were turned on. The guy had long blond hair, almost white, some soft and nice features that made his expression to be kind and trustworthy, but the vivid red iris told her otherwise. Behind him another vampire entered the room with his head low.

She stopped moving and just looked at them, almost challenging them with her eyes, waiting for what they would do to her. The Blond Guy looked at her and then turned his head to the side a little.

“So this is the human that goes back and fro in Daroll’s house? Are you sure they are planning for her to become that little brat’s blood doll? Why is she not living with them if they plan to adopt her as well?”

The other guy replied with a low tone. “Yes, my sire. Our spies heard them talking they are waiting for a ‘right moment’, they never made clear why.”

“This is unexpected. Thanks to this human I have something nice to bargain with that pompous Daroll. Suddenly raising the fact that he is the rightful Prince or whatever bullshit. If he wants this title he should have gotten it back when he killed Adrian. Tsk. That is so not happening.” He focused his gaze on Meeyon. “Don’t worry, human, you’ll be free as soon as your lover’s sire backs off from his proposal to the Council.” His kind expression vanished once the vampire smirked at her, some diabolical beauty mesmerizing her.

She cocked her head to the side, looking at him for a while like that. She knew whatever he was scheming would not work, yet she did nothing to contradict his beliefs that she was going to be adopted by the vampire family.

“Do you have something to eat?” she suddenly asked, taking in this vampire’s appearance and smiling politely. “I’m really hungry. Whoever took me away was preventing my night time snack.”

“Quite a polite soon-to-be doll, I’m in good mood now.” He turned to leave, sending an order for the other vampire to give her whatever food she wanted.

Once she heard the order he gave to the other vampire, she turned to him. “I’d like a milkshake. Vanilla milkshake preferably. And some cookies if you have those. Oh and could you tell me what time it is? Because I actually have no idea. It’s morning already, right?” she immediately started talking, as if the fact that she was in a hostile vampires’ mansion didn’t bother her at all.

“Yes. It’s morning, so don’t expect help for a long time.” the other vampire growled and left the room locking it. Once the door was closed, she moved around a little, trying to feel if her phone was still in her pocket. Sadly the device was gone.

She pouted at that revelation, sitting down normally again and looking around once more. She didn’t doubt that Yeonghae would be looking for her, since her work would certainly call her mobile first and then him if she didn’t show up – which she obviously wouldn’t – but it would’ve been easier if she could tell him it was the current vampire Prince stealing her away. Thinking it over like that, she couldn’t help bursting out in nervous giggles. The whole situation started to resemble a fairytale way too much by now.

Not long after the door was once again unlocked and opened, the same vampire from before walking in with a big glass of milkshake and a pack of cookies. He put those on the side table and pulled out two more handcuffs that he used to bind her feet at the bed so he could set her hands free. “Enjoy the food,” he hissed before going out.

“Sir!” she called out, before he could close the door. “Can I ask why my shoes are gone?” But the door was closed and she got no reply.

She huffed, crawling towards the night table to grab her milkshake and cookies. She then found a comfortable position and happily started on her cookies. About an hour later she had finished the whole pack of cookies and drunk the whole milkshake. Usually she would start busying herself, but of course with her legs shackled to the bed that wasn’t going to happen. So she lay down, searched for some comfortable way to lie with the cuffs and then closed her eyes, planning on a short nap. It was surprising how relaxed she felt, but perhaps that was to blame on the fact that she had spent years in the presence of vampires. And even though these weren’t of the same nice kind, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t do anything to her.

She didn’t know how long she slept, but it certainly wasn’t just a nap. She woke up to some weird sounds. Meeyon opened her eyes and sat up slowly, looking around the room, slightly sleepy still. Soon she could distinguish what the noise was. There were people shouting, howls and sounds of things getting broken.

Suddenly she didn’t feel safe anymore on the bed. What if the bad vampires would get to her before the good people did? What if they’d think her useless now and kill her? What if..? She quickly crawled off the bed, away from the door, but the cuffs stopped her when she was halfway off the bed, making her have to move her feet back a little to relieve the tension.

Right at that moment the door was rudely opened and the vampire that had bought her food towered over her dangerously, hissing she had fooled them quite well. He reached a hand for her but his movements were interrupted as he was rudely and violently thrown to the right. A black werewolf in hisu form showed up, howling at him and then jumping at the vampire, biting him in the neck. Mere seconds later she felt hands on her shoulder and Kevin’s warm smile came into view once she looked up.

She was glad he did that, because if she had seen whatever was happening to the vampire now, she certainly would have been haunted by nightmares for a while. Now she could cling to Kevin, relieved they had been on time. “What took you guys so long?” she complained with her forehead pressed against his chest and her eyes closed. Her heartbeat was thumping fast as if trying to make up for the few hours before she took a nap that she hadn’t been afraid.

“Yeonghae called asking if you were with Henry because you didn’t show up at work and were not home. We got worried, but Chanhyeok was already trying to track you and when he said he smelled vampire scent near your apartment and that some vampire had followed you to a minishop, Daroll grasped what happened so he asked me to come. Nina gave me blood and I came here with Chungyeol.”

While Kevin spoke, Meeyon could hear the vampire shouting and Gwangjin’s howls until some metal click was heard and the vampire silenced. “Don’t open your eyes, little sis.” Gwangjin’s guttural voice sounded and she could feel he was pushing something out of the room. Soon the noise from downstairs also died. She kept clinging to Kevin, listening to his heartbeat and focusing on that so she could stay calm.

“Is Yeonghae around here too?” she then asked, having no intention of opening her eyes yet until someone would tell her it was fine for her to look up. “And could you take these things off?” She vaguely pointed in the direction of the cuffs still holding her to the bed.

Kevin chuckled. “Of course Yeonghae is here. Do you mind floors and walls dirty with blood?” he then asked, reaching out a hand to touch the handcuff but not letting go of her.

“I think I’d prefer avoiding them if I have the chance too,” she muttered. “The mental images I’m having now are bad enough already, I don’t need to see them for real to make my nightmares more vivid.”

“Then keep your eyes closed. I’m going to release you so that I can break the cuff.” Kevin advised and let go of her, moving so he could break the cuffs and set her free. The metal easily crumbled in his hands and Kevin looked at his hands amazed. “I’m really not used to these super powers, you know? There, now you’re free.” he laughed, still slightly dazed with the amazedness of being a half vampire. Being a blood doll under Daroll’s progenies was certainly good enough.

She smiled at his comment and the laugh that followed seemed to lift her spirits a little. “Can you take me to some place where it’s safe to open my eyes, mister superpowers?” she then asked, smiling lightly. But before he could reply her, another pair of warm arms wrapped around her and a pair of lips crashed on hers.

She was shocked at first, but once the warmth registered in her mind, she immediately relaxed, her body almost slumping against Yeonghae’s. It was easy to forget about everything else in the room as she wrapped her arms around him as well, pulling her head away not too long after to bury her face against his chest. She opened her eyes then, luckily seeing nothing but his skin.

“They didn’t do anything to you right? Thank you, Kevin, for following Gwangjin.” His voice was tired as if he had been running a marathon.

“Don’t mention it. I am indebted with all of you,” Kevin replied and Meeyon could perfectly imagine his smile. She carefully stroked Yeonghae’s back, allowing herself to lean back a little so she could look at his face. It was surprisingly easy not to try and peek at the rest of the room.

“I’m fine,” she then said. “They never planned to hurt me, only use me as bribing material against Daroll-ssi,” Even after so many years, she had never stopped using formalities with the eldest of the vampires. “They thought I was going to be adopted into the vampire family,” She sent him a small smile. “Thank you for coming for me so fast.” she then changed the subject, taking an arm from around him to cup his face, looking at him intently in order to check if he was alright.

“I almost panicked when I arrived home and you were not there. I thought I could catch you before you left for work, but then thought you had left earlier. When they called me to ask why you didn’t show up I really panicked. The only thing I had in mind was not waste time to find you.” He assured smiling at her to send the message he was ok and that he was glad she was ok. “Close your eyes I’m taking you to where the others are. The path is not something very nice to see.”

Her smile grew as he spoke and even though he asked her to closer her eyes, she leaned in to give him another peck on his lips first. When she pulled away again, she wrapped her second arm securely around him as well, resting her cheek against his chest and closing her eyes, clinging on to him tightly. Even though she had been close to panicking mere minutes before, the moment Yeonghae was with her, that fear seemed to leave her, knowing she was safe and he was too.

He pulled her up and carried her out of the room, kindly asking Kevin to follow him. They walked for what seemed five to ten minutes until he stopped and asked Kevin to open the door. Once he stepped inside the room happy howls could be heard and he whispered that she could open her eyes.

When she did, a slight smile pulled up the corners of her mouth at all the howls. She put her feet back down on the ground and turned around to look at everyone present. Her hand easily found Yeonghae’s while she did so, however. In the wolves she recognized Gwangjin, Kangdae, Seungi, Chanhyeok and even Wonshik. Chungyeol was there as well, with the vampire prince on his knees in front of him, hands bound together behind his back. The snarky vampire was holding one of his many swords, but the blade was ablaze with a blue fire, something that made her tighten her grip on Yeonghae’s hand for a moment. She inched back slightly, until her back rested against Yeonghae’s chest, and then made a slight bow.

“I’m sorry to worry you all. Thank you for coming for me,” she then said to the group of her friends. It felt magical to know there were so many people who would do anything to keep her safe and she had never felt more thankful to know Yeonghae and his pack.

“What is the meaning of this?!” the vampire prince hissed trying to break free, but soon enough Chungyeol pointed his sword at him and he flinched back. “Why are those beasts backing up Daroll? They are enemies!”

At that Chungyeol kicked his face. “Dall was nicely dealing with this through diplomacy. No-one asked you to kidnap a wolf’s wife, right?”

The Prince looked at Meeyon in astonishment.

She sent him a small smile. “He’s right, I’m married to a werewolf,” she then replied. “You sounded so self-assured I didn’t want to burst your bubble earlier, I’m sorry.”

The Prince hissed at her with pure hatred. But before he could open his mouth again, Daroll entered the room with another vampire, who eyed the situation and then locked his gaze on Meeyon.

She turned when she realised someone came in, a smile still on her face. But when the vampire’s bloodred eyes locked with hers, that smile disappeared and she inched even closer against Yeonghae, tightening the grip she had on his hand, which made Yeonghae sneak his free arm around her middle and pull her against him to say he was not letting anything happen to her. Mere moments later, she made small bow, as if something inside her told her that was the right thing to do.

“So this is the human and the werewolves… The urathas you said? I really don’t understand you, dogs.” the vampire spoke, his voice was cold and lethal.

Kangdae and Gwangjin howled in protest but Seungi was fast in approaching, turning back to his human form. “We don’t appreciate the pet name, we are wolves not dogs, Mr. Vampire of the council. And pardon me but you don’t understand because you, nightwalkers, often don’t care about anyone else.” Seungi’s words were polite and said in a tone of friendliness.

The older vampire raised an eyebrow at him but turned his gaze back at Meeyon. “Human, they say you’re married to an uratha? How could you accept such a thing?”

She smiled, shrugged, then found the bluntness to speak. “Yeonghae is not a thing, if you would be so kind. You both look like humans but you’re not. What is the difference in your supernatural abilities that would make you normal and them despicable?” she replied, her words still polite despite the critique in them. “These urathas do nothing but protect us, humans, against their brothers who hunt us, the vampires that want to feed from us, the riddens that try to kill us and the other bad creatures out there. You think I would reject someone who loves me, protects me and wants the best for me just because he happens to have the ability to change into a wolf? Calling them dogs is the same as calling you bats, the two are in no way alike.”

The vampire looked at her for a moment and then smirked. “And you, Daroll, want the Kindreads to ally with Urathas whenever it is convenient and prove we can fight our curse and live alongside them in harmony? Quite the utopia… But seeing what happens here, and under that one’s nose without him seeing, I think I could give you the chance to prove the utopia can exist in fact. I will report to the Council what I saw here,” The vampire looked at Chungyeol’s blade.

“Quite the artefact you have there, Chungyeol-ssi. You may use that on him now. Sosari’s Prince for now, until further notice is Daroll.” He announced solemnly, turning to Daroll then to warn him. “But don’t go making radical changes just yet. Wait for the final word from the Council,” Only then did he turn to look at the wolves and the two humans present there. “I’m looking forward to news about what happens here. At least the Kindreads and the Urathas share the same vow right?” he asked, looking at Seungi.

The werewolf nodded and spoke solemnly: “The Herd must not know.”

The vampire nodded and left with a final. “Farewell, wolves.”

Once the Elder left Chungyeol looked at the ex-prince. “Yeonghae, do you want to eat him?”

Yeonghae looked at the red haired vampire and shrugged. “He didn’t hurt Meeyon. He is all yours, Chungyeol-nim.”

The formality coming from the uratha made Chungyeol smirk. “Meeyon dear, if you don’t want to see, close your eyes.” he warned as he lifted his blade. The ex-Prince shouted for mercy. Yeonghae pulled Meeyon to him and kissed her, the best distraction he could think of. She let him do that, but once the sounds died away, pulled back a little, chuckling softly.

“Why is it that whenever I’m not supposed to see stuff you do let me hear it?” she said, turning to glance at Kevin too. “The sounds are just as bad as the images, you know… You’re lucky I don’t have a weak stomach.” She sent him a grin, before looking at everyone else, noticing the ex-prince had disappeared.

“Are you all alright?” she then asked the group of wolves. “Did anyone get hurt?”

All the wolves turned back to their human form, fortunately they all had managed to keep their pants on. “We are fine, Meeyon. The last thing they expected was to see werewolves barging in.” Wonshik spoke softly.

“Plus that flaming blade helped a lot.” Chanhyeok added to that and skipped to hug Meeyon too.

“You don’t worry about us, kiddo, they were pastime activity.” Kangdae came closer as well, messing her hair. Seungi and Gwangjin just kept looking them from afar with a smile, but soon Yeonghae looked up at them.

“Thank you, Gwangjin, for finding her,” Said person waved at his cousin.

“Little sis was in danger and you were busy, so of course I had to save her in your place.” he grinned. “Little sis, was awesome.” he added showing a thumbs up for her and grinning.

“What did I do exactly that was awesome?” she protested. “Go out alone in the middle of the night? Let myself get kidnapped? Demand milkshake and cookies from them?” She snorted. “I think all of you were amazing,” she then declared, sending the pack around her a grin, before walking through them towards the other three not around her. “Who was that cocky vampire who poured a little too much blood in his eyes, by the way?” she asked as she walked over to Seungi, easily slipping her arms around his middle and surprising him with a hug – something she had never done before despite all the time he had spent on teaching her about werewolves and other things.

“Once we got the idea they had kidnapped you I called him up. His name is Adrant. He is a Council standby. He watches over Sosari and report to the Council the actions of the Prince, so he is the real authority in this city. He is the responsible to take the Council’s orders and pass them to us. I have been talking to him and explaining that for decades I have an alliance with a pack of urathas, trying to explain how things works between us and how our ex-prince was just a cruel and stupid power seeker. It was unfortunate that you had to experience this, but because of you we won a diplomatic battle that could have lasted for centuries. You have my greatest thanks, Meeyon.” Daroll explained and suddenly Kangdae started laughing nonstop grabbing Chanhyeok to keep his balance.

Meeyon, who had let go of Seungi moments after hugging him and had silently demanded a hug from Chungyeol and Gwangjin as well before deciding she had hugged and thanked enough people, eyed him in surprise when he suddenly laughed like that. Her eyes slid from him to Yeonghae, her eyebrows raised in question. She then turned to Daroll.

“You’re... welcome?” she then said, unsure of what to think of the situation now.

Kangdae waved at her and tried to stop. “Why the hell isn’t Sungmin here? Didn’t you hear her? She demanded milkshake and cookies from them! Milkshake and cookies! You’re definitely awesome, Meeyon!” and he boomed laughing again as Seungi chuckled.

“Indeed, Sungmin would have enjoyed to hear that.” The elodoth commented and all the others grinned.

Yeonghae came closer to her and slipped his arms around her. “Once Sungmin got taken hostage by a group of Gunzounese vampires and when we arrived to save him he was being served as a king.” he explained, already chuckling as well. She chuckled along after hearing that.

“Well I had just bought ice cream to make milkshake and cookies to eat when they kidnapped me, so of course they should at least let me have my late night snack in peace!” she then protested. “I think they just gave me what I had bought already. Cheap vampire snobs.” There was a displeased expression on her face for a moment, before she grinned again. She turned her head to look at Yeonghae then, smiling still but turning a little more serious as she said: “I need to ask you something in private... Can we go home?”

He nodded and they left the now abandoned mansion. Chungyeol was saying they could redecorate it and move there since that was the Prince mansion and the Prince was Daroll. That mansion was bigger than theirs that was for sure.

The wolves went back home after demanding for Meeyon to go have dinner with them that night. Kevin, Chungyeol and Daroll went back to their territory, whereas Yeonghae took Meeyon back to her apartment. Once he closed the door behind them and locked it he questioned what she wanted.

“The vampires listened in on my conversation with Henry about blood dolls. I was kidnapped because they thought it would be happening and I’d be ‘adopted’ by him,” she said. “I just want to know if you’ve thought about it...”

Yeonghae sighed. “You know I’m a jealous person right? I don’t like the idea of sharing you with Henry, even less because I know that if he orders you not to see me you wouldn’t be able to go against him,” Yeonghae started, searching for the right words to continue. She wanted to assure him that Henry would never do such a thing, but instead decided to hear him out completely first, as it was obvious he had more to say still.

“I talked with uncle. He said he believes in Henry and in all of Daroll’s progenies for all the years we’ve been fighting together. He encouraged me to ask the other’s opinions. Kangdae and Gwangjin asked to think it through, Sunhi accepted right then and there and I’m sure she’s kind of wishing Simon would do the same, Chanhyeok and Seungi also agreed after a day of thinking about it, Wonshik didn’t say anything... he is probably waiting for Kangdae and Gwangjin to say something as well. I’m only accepting you becoming Henry’s Blood Doll if all my cousins approve, otherwise I would feel like I am betraying them.” Yeonghae continued, hoping she wouldn’t feel bad about the three that didn’t give an answer yet.

She smiled, realising that he had actually thought about it and had even gone so far as to ask his cousins opinions about it. That meant he was really considering it, not just brushing it aside like he probably would have done if she had asked it the first time the idea came up in her mind. She walked up to him, taking hold of his hands and holding them up in between their bodies.

“I understand,” she then said. “Thank you for really thinking it over,” Her smile was happy, even though her eyes were slightly watery because of the emotions surging through her at that moment. “When they do... accept,” she then continued. “I’d like to wait a few years still anyway. At least until I’m thirty,” She cocked her head to the side a little and smiled at him. “Forty is too old, but I want to live like a normal human for a little longer, to experience everything I can in life.”

Yeonghae nodded and released her hands to hug her. “I hope your scent won’t change much with Henry’s blood.” he commented. She smiled, leaning against him and slipping her arms around his neck.

“Even if it changes, it will still be my scent. You’ll have a hundred years to get used to it,” she then said softly, closing her eyes.

“I guess I will.” When Yeonghae thought of that he couldn’t help but smile even brighter than any time before. To have her till his last breath was surreal at the very least.

“Oh, one other thing.” she then mumbled, opening her eyes and taking a distance again, eyeing him seriously.

He looked at her curiously. “What?”

“Do you think the offer of moving in with your family still stands?”

He smiled softly at her. “Of course it does.” His childish smile broke through and he chuckled.

“Let’s take them up on it then,” she said, grinning slightly. “We’ll keep this house in case we ever need some real time alone. We can tell them tonight at dinner. Preferably right when they all just put food in their mouths. That’d be a nice view,” She was grinning too now. “Just make sure you’re out of the spitting line of fire then.” Yeonghae laughed and agreed with her, pulling her to the couch and smiling at the thought he suddenly got a whole day together.

They cuddled on the couch a little, made themselves a small lunch and watched some TV, until they decided it was about time to set off to the werewolves’ mansion. They had moved to a different mansion when Sunhi and Simon married and so only the older urathas were there, but Soohwan that was still living in the old house with the pups. The two mansions were very close to each other, though, so the Alpha spent pretty much just as much time in both houses.

When they entered, Simon immediately came to check if she was alright, but after reassuring him five times, he believed her. The rest of the werewolves luckily weren’t as clingy as they had seen her that morning. They gathered around the table pretty soon after arriving and Sunhi and Chanhyeok who had made the food together brought it all out.

Yeonghae served Meeyon and then served himself, not caring at all about serving his adorable hyungs, or his uncle who was there especially for Meeyon. After Chanhyeok and Sunhi took their seats and everybody started eating, Yeonghae sneaked a glance at Meeyon and then cleared his throat. “Uncle, my dear cousins and Simon. I’m informing Meeyon is moving in here and we’re keeping her apartment as our love nest.” he spoke and everybody but Soohwan and Seungi froze.

Wonshik was the first to come back to his senses. “It will be less noisy than last time Meeyon. Kangdae and Gwangjin are working now so they won’t be home that much.” At that the two Rahu protested they want to spend more time with their little sis too.

She chuckled, leaning closer to Yeonghae as if to share a secret, even though she knew perfectly well everyone could hear her. “No spitting line of fire I guess,” she mumbled, grinning then as she quietly took another bite of her food. She grinned, Yeonghae laughed and all the wolves chuckled. Simon looked at them all lost so Sunhi quickly told him what Meeyon had said.

He also chuckled then before commenting happily: “It was about time, another human to share the house with.”

She grinned at him. “You just miss me terribly but you don’t like me enough to leave your wife and visit me. So now you’re glad I’m coming to you, that way you don’t have to pick between us,” she scolded jokingly.

“You know me so well, Meeyon,” he agreed, pulling Sunhi close to give her a peck on the lips.

At that Kangdae had to make a comment. “Mercy on the single souls, love birds. Please, no public demonstrations of affection.” Sunhi’s reply was to send a flying kiss to her brother.

Meeyon was less understanding however, her eyes twinkling as she exaggerated in putting her arm around Yeonghae and pulling him so close they were almost sitting on each other’s lap. She proceeded to turn his face to her with her free hand and kiss him in an overly sweet and lingering way. When she pulled away again, she sent a smile Kangdae’s way.

“Oppa said he wanted to spend more time with me, right?” she then asked, her grin seeping through again. She let go of Yeonghae, but did take hold of his hand, lacing their fingers together.

“I’m reconsidering now,” Kangdae raised an eyebrow at her. “Now I know where all the lovey-dovey inspiration for Yeonghae’s songs comes from,” he added, shoving food in his mouth but not showing any signs of being angry with her.

She chuckled and only barely stopped herself from throwing a piece of meat at him, telling herself that she was not at home. “That’s one down,” she mumbled, before smiling at Gwangjin. “So Gwangjin oppa, are there things I should not do when you’re around?” she then asked, making it obvious she was just joking with that question.

“You could massage my back for every time you kiss him in front of me,” he chuckled eating heartily and seriously enjoying the atmosphere when she was around. She laughed softly at that, eating some more in silence before suddenly commenting: “The food is really good, Sunhi. You improved since last time I lived here.”

“Thanks, Meeyon, I want to cook good food for Simon and now for our baby too.” Sunhi smiled and nodded at her.

“I’ll teach you a thing or two about baking if you want? Then you can make nice cake for Simon and your baby in the future. You know how much your hubby loves cake,” she said, enjoying the kind of small talk she was having. The other family members were eating in silence, so it felt kind of awkward to be the only one talking, but she still did it anyway. They’d have to get used to her talking at the dinner table. “Oh.. If I live here, will Hennie be allowed to visit then or would I have to go visit him all the time now?”

“He can visit as long as he informs he is coming,” Soohwan answered with a smile.

“Speaking of which... Why did he not come help on this epic quest to save me? I thought he’d be the second to reach me. Then again, I thought you’d be the first, honey, but you disappointed me and sent Kevin in,”

“Ah, no, don’t say that.” Wonshik interfered and Kangdae nodded.

“He was the first to barge in and howl at the vampires so they fell on him and he had to deal with a lot of enemies at once. He kept asking where you were and the guy taking care of you was nice enough to try to get to you before Yeonghae was free. I just got in time to hear him saying you fooled them.” Gwangjin explained then.

“Awww.. My hero!” she purred, stroking Yeonghae’s hair and smiling at him. Even though the words were meant as a slight joke, the sentiment behind it – her gratefulness – was real and honest. She put down her chopsticks then and leaned her head on his shoulder, just sitting like that as she didn’t really feel hungry anymore. Yeonghae ate a little bit more and then excused themselves to the living room; a silent plea for a family discussion.

Meeyon got up together with him, walking to the living room and sitting down there. Once again she curled up against him, but in such a way that it would not make his family feel uncomfortable about it.

“Do you want to ask them about the Blood Doll reply today?” Yeonghae questioned her softly.

“I... Well... If they already know their answers that would be nice, but there’s no pressure,” she said, smiling lightly. It took a while for the others to come to the living room, all but Sunhi who went upstairs to get her baby who woke up from his sleep and started crying.

Wonshik looked at Soohwan and then looked at Meeyon. “I guess you want to know our opinion and we have one to give you. We all agree on you becoming Henry’s blood doll, but any sign of betrayal from his side and the pact is over.”

She nodded. “I can agree with that.” she replied, but it was then that Simon spoke up.

“What exactly are we agreeing about right now?” he asked, looking from Meeyon to Soohwan and back. Meeyon looked at him for a moment, realising Simon probably had no idea yet about the whole plan. So she closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath and then started talking.

“Vampires have blood dolls, Simon,” she said softly, barely daring to look into her best friend’s eyes. “They’re people who live off the vampire’s blood. Jia is Chungyeol’s blood doll for example. He’s way older than you can imagine. I... proposed the idea of becoming Henry’s blood doll in order to be able to live long enough to be with Yeonghae until his time comes,” She smiled slightly. “He wanted to have his family’s approval first, that’s what we’re agreeing about now.”

The silence that followed on her words was deafening, Simon staring at her with that wide-eyed shocked expression only he could pull off so well. There was a moment of hesitation, before she got up and walked over to him, gently taking hold of his hand and squeezing it lightly. He seemed to come back to life at that, not pulling his hand out of her grip, but it obviously took some effort.

“You want to do what?” he whispered then and she almost felt his disapproval radiate from him.

“Simon, it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time,” she therefore hurried to explain. “Henry told me all the positive and negative sides and I decided I want to. It would mean a lot if you’d approve of it as well, but I’m doing it regardless,” She swallowed some of the guilt she felt saying that and sighed then. “You know what it’s like, Simon... Wouldn’t you do the same if you could?”

There was more silence then and Simon looking at her in ways that made her go from guilt to hope to anger and back to guilt in mere seconds. She waited for his answer, not speaking any longer, but the fact that his hand remained clasped in hers meant a lot already. Finally, he sighed, putting his other hand on top of hers and giving her one of his I-disapprove-of-this-but-I-know-I-can’t-stop-you looks.

“If it’s really what you want, Meeyon,” he then said, smiling lightly and shrugging. “I guess I can’t stop you then. And yes, I probably would too.”

Mere moments later, Sunhi came down with her baby, sitting beside Simon as she kept a smile on her face. “It’s a really happy night for you, Meeyon, I’m happy. Wonshik oppa... We could ask the vampires if they’d agree on helping Linyue... Maybe their vitae can help her recover the control over her body.” Sunhi suggested. Wonshik looked at her surprised.

Simon’s head turned to his wife and his wide-eyed shocked expression was back, but the next moment his face went blank as he got up from the couch. He pulled Meeyon along with him, wrapping an arm around her middle casually as he took her up the stairs, to his room. She followed with a short apologetic look over at Yeonghae, letting her friend drag her along, knowing exactly what was going on in his head.

So she positioned herself at his bedroom door after he closed it and watched him walking up to the window, staring outside, hands clasped behind his back. “Sometimes it’s hard?” she questioned, making him nod in silent agreement.

“Sometimes it’s really hard,” he then mumbled. “I have a wife and a kid that are both werewolves and even though they live to protect humans...” He sighed and moments later she could hear a mumble sounding much like: “Please God, forgive me for my sins.”

“They are not sins, Simon,” she replied. “Love is not a sin. Protecting your wife is not a sin. What they do is not a sin. They are what they are. They didn’t choose to be either. Sometimes it’s hard, but that’s the same for everyone,” She smiled slightly, walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t move, but she knew he appreciated the gesture. “We may not see each other as often anymore, but I know you. Don’t knock yourself up over this. Believe in God, fine, but believe in your family too.”

They were both insecure and she knew it. He knew it too. For a while they were silent, a kind of comfortable silence in which many thoughts were exchanged. “I do believe in them,” he then said. “I just don’t believe in myself sometimes.” And to that, Meeyon could only squeeze his shoulder softly, turn away and go get Sunhi, because there were things she could not comfort him with.

Downstairs the discussion was now directed to the idea Sunhi had raised, and all of them agreed the only vampire with the right heart of gold to do that was Daroll. They were analysing the pros and cons when Meeyon came back. One look at her and Sunhi asked her to take care of the baby for a little bit with a slight ‘he doesn’t drool that much anymore’ and went upstairs.

Once she entered the room and closed the door behind her, she just looked at her husband’s back. “Simon...” she called. He visible trembled when she did so, turning partly, but keeping his face away from her. It didn’t take a genius to see that Simon was either crying or doing his best not to.

“Why are you feeling bad, darling?” She walked up to him to wrap her arm around his middle and rest her head on his back.

“I wish I could be better for you.” he admitted, leaning into her hug.

“And how do you think you could be better for me?” she smiled, despite the nagging feeling she had.

“No matter what you say I feel like I can’t protect you against anything. You go off on fights and all I can do is stay behind, hoping you’ll be well.” he admitted, voice vulnerable but not tearful. “I can’t even give you myself for the rest of your life like Meeyon wants to do for Yeonghae.”

“I’m not asking you to do that. That’s something I’ve been telling myself ever since I heard about the way an uratha falls in love. ‘When it happens I want to live it to its fullest so it can be eternal in my heart.’ Simon, you are my reason to keep existing. Once your time is over I can easily follow you. You don’t have to extend your life, I can simply shorten mine.” she confessed what she had planned to do once Simon was not around anymore.

He stilled in her arms for a split second, before turning around and grabbing her by the shoulders, perhaps a little harder than he should. “No, you can’t! What about our kids?” he questioned, his mind drenched in shock, in non-understanding.

“They will surely be old enough to live without us. Because you’ll be like 100 years old once I can no longer have you. I’m not letting you go that soon. I consider myself lucky, Simon, to have my father still. None of my cousins have their parents anymore. We can live near 500 years but only few of us reach that. I’m sure my brother, Gwangjin, Seungi and especially Chanhyeok are alive right now only because dad managed to help them find a reason to keep existing after their companions passed away. If I see my kids growing strong I will leave after you without regrets.”

“It’s not ... right,” he protested weakly, but in the logical way she was right. He just really wanted to be able to do something for her. After all, ever since the start, he had felt like she was the one working miracles in his life, never feeling like he did something back for her that compared to that.

“What do you think is right then?” she questioned softly moving up to kiss his lips.

He closed his eyes at that and a tear spilled over his cheek, finding a path down to his jaw line. He lifted a hand to wipe it away, opening his hands again after and looking at her for a moment. With a soft sigh, he turned around again, staring outside of the window. His insides were a turmoil of feelings, his mind a bunch of thoughts running through each other. “I’m supposed to take care of you.” he then spoke.

“Do you think I love you less than Meeyon loves Yeonghae for he is the one protecting her? Simon... You are my life. Your happiness is my happiness. Why do you think I ever considered not telling you my truth?” she dared him.

“It’s not that I think you don’t love me because I can’t protect you, Sunhi!” he exclaimed, voice a little too loud to be normal, but not loud enough to be angry. He turned to her again, looking her straight in the eyes. He sighed then, turning away, moving away towards the wardrobe. “We’re not having this discussion right now.”

“Simon, I have just one question for you… Do you think you’re going to hell?” she sat on the bed looking out of the window. He choked then, sputtering some words in shock and turning to look at her, eyes wide once more.

“What are you talking about?” he countered, disbelief in his voice.

“You love a monster, something God cursed and the humans fear, therefore you’re sinning. Isn’t that what you believe being a Believer? Yet you see me as no monster, but someone gifted with power and abilities to protect the weak. I’m not a saint. I’m not an angel either, but you can look at me as something similar, right? I’m not a sin to you, right?” Sunhi fought the urge to cry. He was at her side in a blink, crouching down in front of her and cupping her face with his hands.

“How can you be a sin?” he asked, pressing a kiss on her lips then and looking at her after. “You’re not a sin to me, Sunhi, you are my wife. I love you and I admire you.”

“That’s all I want from you, Simon. Your love is the only thing I need. You gave your heart to me and nothing can be greater than that. If you’re not beside me, I have no reason to be.” She threw herself in his arms and the two fell on the floor as she toppled him down.

He wrapped his arms around her too, tightly enough to hold, but not enough to hurt. Lying on the ground wasn’t too bad, really, especially not with his wife on top of him. Guilt ate at him, however, because what he didn’t admit to her was that sometimes he DID feel like he was sinning. But some things were supposed to remain secrets, kept even from those you held dearer than yourself. “I love you,” he therefore whispered, pressing a kiss on her lips that he hoped would subtly relay his apology.

Little did he know that she had listened to his talk with Meeyon and that she was trying to convince herself that if he was willing to hide that sometimes he saw her as a sin, she would hold on to his love blindly. But something was telling her she wouldn’t be able to keep that up much longer, especially if she heard him ask forgiveness to God as often as she had done so far.

He sighed against the skin of her cheek, breathed in her scent and then mentioned out of the blue: “Let’s go on a holiday.”

She nodded. “But it can’t be a long one. I need to be around for when Daroll gets assigned as Sosari’s official Prince.” She smiled slightly forcedly.

“Just a few days is fine. Just get away for a few days. Can your cousins take care of Shinil?”

“I’d only trust him to Wonshik or Yeonghae, the others are disastrous.” She chuckled trying to easy her mind.

“Should we take him?” Simon then offered. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving him. We can just take him.”

“Humn, he cries when he wakes up and doesn’t see you, I think he loves you more than he loves me.” Sunhi joked.

“That’s because I let you do all the scolding all the time.” he replied, a lighter tone in his voice as well. “That way I can be the cool dad who’s fun to be with.”

She playfully hit his chest. “He’ll thank me later when he is tagged as well mannered and polite.”

“If he keeps learning from his uncle he’ll be tagged as loud and obnoxious.” Simon countered. There was a moment of silence before he added: “We should really go on a holiday now. If Kangdae hyung heard that, I’m dead.”

She laughed now feeling light. “I’d kill him if he tries to do anything against you,” she stood up and reached a hand for him. “Let’s pack our bags.”

Simon agreed, getting up and moving to do exactly that. It was a spur of the moment, his decision that they needed to get away. But the moment he turned away from his beautiful wife, the doubt was back in his mind.


	9. Waning Crescent

Moving into the werewolf mansion turned out to not be much of a hassle; all Meeyon did was take some clothes over to their place and a few of her most used stuff. Settling in was no problem either, since she had become much closer with all of the wolves since the last time she lived there, and even the pups were quite easy to get along with once she got the hang of taking care of their childish attitudes when they came to visit their dads. Living together was nice, cosy, and whenever they needed it, they could still escape to the solitude of her apartment.

The next surprise came about a month later, on a very specific day she had planned out herself. There were no hunts Yeonghae had to go on that night, no other duties he had to fulfil, so she asked him to spend an evening and a night over at the apartment. He complied, of course, and they were soon settled on the couch, cuddling so comfortably that it wasn’t clear anymore which limbs belonged to whom. Her head was resting on his chest, her face turned towards the television where some non-committal show was playing.

“That’s boring... Isn’t there anything better to watch?” He asked while caressing her hair. “Or do you want to do something else?” he questioned with some playful whisper in her ear. She chuckled, patting his stomach softly and lifting her head a little so she could look at him, a slight smile on her face.

“You need to start learning how to not be so eager all the time,” she then said amused, before turning more serious. “You used to be very good at controlling your urges, try going back to that state. I’m a little tired of being jumped by you every other day.” She put her head back on his chest and continued to watch the program, silently listening to what his reaction would be.

He pouted. “Well sorry if I want to love my wife,” He pulled her left hand and kissed the ring. “Do you want to eat then? This program is really boring.” He started to play with her hand to distract himself.

“Love your wife a little less and save some for others,” she said. “Also this eating habit of yours is becoming a problem too. What will become of us if you keep eating all the food?”

“We buy more. That’s not something I can do something about. My body works a little bit faster than yours just that,” he pouted again. “Why are you complaining about my two pleasures in life?” he half joked. She crawled up a little, using her hand as a support on the couch to pull herself up like that and turning to look at him. For a moment she just looked, before sighing.

“Because they’re both inappropriate or unmannered,” she then said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and eyeing him with a frown. “Not a good example for the pups.”

He felt confused and somewhat hurt. She had never cared about the pups, why minding them now? And it’s not like they were better than him in any way. He opened his mouth to protest but she cut in before he could.“ Besides, your bedtime activities are a little awkward when there’s someone else around.”

“Someone else around? What someone else around?” Yeonghae felt extremely confused and was starting to get hurt by her words.

She nodded, the frown still on her face. “Do you really want your children to know you as daddy-eats-a-lot?” she inquired, looking at him and waiting for the realization to sink in, or else him getting really hurt by her words, which would be the moment she’d just plain tell him.

He looked seriously at her before sighing. “What’s this, Meeyon? Are you trying to say you’re regretting choosing me or something? You know there are some things about me I cannot change. Ok, if you want me to keep my urges controlled, but I need to eat and you know that. Why are you being like this now?” he finally asked with hurt visible in his eyes.

Instead of repenting and feeling sorry, a smile broke through on her face. She easily relaxed her stance as she took his hands in hers and pressed a soft kiss on the finger where he wore his ring. When she sat up again she looked at him with that same smile.

“I’m pregnant, sweetie.” she then said, as serious as she had ever been.

He froze. His brain disconnected and his soul travelled somewhere else. He kept looking at her as the information got processed. It was only a full minute later that he found his voice. “We’re... I’m going to be a daddy..? But you said... You were taking precautions... What?”

She smiled, unable not to it seemed. “Remember when I said I’d like to experience all the good things of being a human?” she said softly, squeezing his hand lightly. “I know how much you want kids, Yeonghae... I stopped taking precautions about two months ago. I’m really pregnant.”

He looked at her tummy and then back at her face. A radiant smile broke through on his face and he pulled her to him so he could softly kiss her lips. “I... Thank you, Meeyon. Even if I say thank you a million times it wouldn’t be enough. Thank you for loving me like you do,” He hugged her softly and caressed her abdomen. “I’m going to be a father.” She smiled, pressing a soft kiss on his cheek.

“You’re going to be a wonderful father,” she then corrected him, feeling her whole being light up because of the happiness radiating from Yeonghae. “You’ll have to eat a little less so that your child gets something too. And no weird bedtime activities when he or she is around.” she then hinted back to her previous accusations. “We don’t want our child to think it’s appropriate to do that all the time.” The chuckle was audible in her voice.

He frowned. “So I’d have to be gone while he’s at school and risk being seen during the day? Those will be hard days.” He made a grave face but there was some edge of playfulness in his tone.

She chuckled and pressed another kiss on his skin. “I’ll be the good working mom, you can be the cool dad who teaches him how to fight.” she then said, hesitating a moment before smiling. “Or her.”

“Do you want it to be a girl?” Yeonghae asked as he went back caressing her hair.

“I don’t care. I just want it to be strong and healthy. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a boy, though.” she replied. It was easy to close her eyes, focus solely on his touch and forget the world outside, which was exactly what she did.

“And do you want it to go looking more like me? Meeyon, it’s rare for a baby with werewolf heritage not to suffer the change, but it may happen... If our baby remains human... Would you stop the Blood Doll idea?” Yeonghae then questioned, sounding unsure, he didn’t know if he should be saying that or not.

She wanted to reply something silly like ‘No, I want it to look more like Gwangjin.’ but then his other words followed. Being thrown back into reality in a second wasn’t exactly nice to experience, so she needed a moment to come up with her answer.

“Why would I stop the blood doll idea if that happens?” she questioned softly.

“Humans must not know about the world of darkness. We can’t tell our kids what we are, so often we do not marry... We let the human side raise the kid almost without contact... My mother was an uratha and it was my father who raised me. I never met my mother, she died before my first change, so I want to be there for my kid. I’m worrying too much, aren’t I..? Let’s just see what happens. I really wish our kid will grow and be with us till we part. Right? I’m sorry for bringing this up.” He cuddled her, seeking for the bad thoughts to leave his mind.

She sighed softly, wrapping her arms more tightly around him and stroking his back. “We’ll see what to do when it comes to that,” she told him, slipping a hand under his shirt to be able to warm her still slightly cold fingers against his skin. “I’m sorry for dragging you away from your family tonight, but I thought you’d like to have the evening together. We can go do anything you feel like doing.”

He lifted her chin and slowly kissed her lips. “We can get popcorn or ice cream and choose some good movie to watch, because this one is depressing me. Such poor plot. Wonshik’s novels should be made into movies not those lame childish vampire loves.” he commented, while pulling her up and leading her to the kitchen.

The next day Yeonghae informed his uncle about Meeyon being pregnant and the news travelled to the vampire territory in a flash. There was a double celebration, since the Vampire council confirmed Daroll as Sosari’s Prince and therefore a whole new life would begin.

Sunhi and Simon assisted Meeyon during the next five months, while the other wolves and a few pups went on a cleaning job. To assure the vampires were not going to kill humans anymore while feeding – Daroll’s new order to all vampires residents in Sosari – the urathas were to act as police and make sure they were following the rule. After all Daroll and his progenies had free access in Soohwan’s territory and the wolves could go all around the parts of Sosari that were not controlled by other urathas.

Yeonghae and his family extended their territory in all pure blood werewolves territories, only leaving other uratha’s territories alone. Soohwan and Daroll tried to extend the alliance with them and for the time being, they accepted to test the idea for Soohwan had helped them before.

Only three pure blood territories remained and two groups were sent to get rid of them, one at the west limits of Sosari, the other at the south limits, the first group consisted of Yeonghae, Kangdae, Gwangjin, Chanhyeok Wonshik and Seungi from the werewolves and Sungmin, Younghyun and Kevin from the vampire side.

It was a mild night for the time of year, his breath only barely visible in the outside air. He glanced around the corner, his back pressed close against the wall to not be seen by anyone who shouldn’t know he was there. Seeing the coast was clear, he motioned the others to follow, sneaking into the next alley and up to the house they were going for.

It had been almost eight years since that fatal night when his sister had told him to leave her house and never come back. Eight years since those filthy monsters had poisoned her mind and tricked her into believing their lies, even sending her own brother away to please them. The hardships he had gone through after leaving her house that day were more than most people would see in a lifetime, but they had been worth it.

Since he had been too weak back then to fight those monsters again, he had left Sosari, coincidentally stumbling upon a group of hunters that operated right outside of the city borders. They took him in with some hesitation at first, not very fond of strangers, but when he proved his value throughout their many battles, he slowly started to gain their respect.

He had lived with them for two years when he first introduced the fact to them that there were werewolves living in the middle of the city, but they brushed off such a ridiculous idea with the argument that nothing ever happened in the city that was as horrid as the things they tried to prevent on the outskirts. He had no means of convincing them back then, so he shut his mouth about it and continued to fight with them.

Six long years later, he finally made his way up to one of the five leading positions in the group, having outlived some of the better ones from back in the day by being more cautious, more able and much more informed. The hunters that were left were looking up to him now and they’d follow him into the city to take on the wolves that lived there if he’d command them to. And he would. He certainly would. Very soon. His revenge would be sweet and he’d get his sister back the way it should be.

But first there were other things he had to take care of; a pack of those monstrous dogs staying in an old warehouse in a rather deserted part of Sosari. They had been tracking them for weeks now and finally the time had come to take them out. There were about eight werewolves inside and he had a group of ten hunters with him, all ready to fight, fully packed with silver daggers, bullets, stakes and anything silver they could lay their hands on. For one long moment he closed his eyes, sent a prayer for guidance and then kicked in the door, running inside with both his guns ready to be used.

The monsters needed some time to realise what was going on, and by the time they shifted into their wolf forms, two of them were already down, clutching at the wounds in their body where liquid silver would be seeping into their blood. He moved at a fast speed, emptying his guns on everything with a fur that moved, only to drop them and grab hold of a couple of daggers once he was out of ammo. The wolves started to spread and he easily went after the one he figured was the leader of the pack.

The wolves were furious, but the one he was tracking seemed to be much more alert and rational. When he followed it into a different room, it managed to use its claws to make him drop one of his daggers. The two of them were studying each other, when suddenly the werewolf howled and buffed, sprinting forward and attacking him with such force he was thrown at a nearby wall, momentarily getting dizzy with the impact and losing his second dagger.

The werewolf breathed heavily and it slowly made its way to him, ready to use its mouth this time around. Minki eyed his lost dagger and calculated to see if retrieving it was worth it or not. But before he reached a conclusion the werewolf howled again and attacked.

He could do nothing but shield his face with his arms, praying to some God he never really had believed in, in hopes of surviving this assault – perhaps one of the other hunters was fast enough, right? Surprisingly, the ‘final blow’ never came and he slowly lowered his arms to see what the monster was doing.

In front of him was another werewolf, but this one looked less like a monster and more like a human. The monster that had wanted to attack him had skidded to a halt, backing away slightly and eyeing the thing in front of it with hatred. Minki kept a close eye on the newcomer. Something felt slightly familiar about him. The next moment the two wolves jumped at each other, teeth snapping in the air as the monster missed the other’s face by a hair’s width.

The newcomer lashed out then, claws sinking into the shoulder of the werewolf. The touch caused a piercing howl to come from the monster as it pulled free to back away. It was then that Minki noticed a silver ring on one of the fingers of the newcomer. The feeling of familiarity grew and he kept feeling like he had seen this werewolf before somewhere, but just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Before he could think further into it, the two wolves jumped at each other again, and the next moment the newcomer locked his jaws around the monster’s neck, obviously taking the upper hand in the fight. The first werewolf howled in pain and started scratching the newcomer’s back in a vain attempt to get free, but in the next second it howled louder and then all his movements ceased. The newcomer let go moving aside and looking at Minki as if waiting for his reaction.

The hunter’s eyes got attracted by a human standing beside the werewolf, however. He was pulling two daggers tainted with blood from the dead beast. The boy had obviously used one of them to fully cut the monster’s throat. Only after he retrieved his knives did the human turn to him and recognition flashed in Minki’s eyes at the sight of Kevin, the orphan he had saved and had been training to be a hunter.

He realised who the wolf was then, images of that same coloured fur flashing through his mind and creating a rush of other memories that almost made him grip at his head in pain. There was something else, something more prominent to deal with however, so once again he shoved aside all the thoughts, getting up and immediately picking up his dagger. He eyed the wolfman, then Kevin, before looking back at the wolfman.

“Thank you,” he bit at the guy through his teeth, his pride still too big to humbly thank the other, but his manners too good to not say anything at all. The werewolf nodded but still kept eyeing him with caution. It was Kevin who spoke again.

“Hyung, please ask the other hunters to stop. Right now they are under Sungmin’s influence and are not attacking, but I’m sure Min won’t be able to hold them further. The fight is over and we won. We do not wish to fight against you.” Kevin’s words were firm but at the same time slightly pleading. Minki was the first to rescue him, but his loyalty belonged to the vampires who allowed him to keep on living.

Minki stared at the younger, before starting to walk, calmly moving back to the main room, where he found the surviving eight hunters gathered together. His eyes wandered over the two dead bodies in the room. When he turned back to his other team members, he sighed.

“Men, stand down, don’t attack. We’re currently in the presence of a group of supernaturals that are not going to attack us,” he spoke calmly, his voice holding the authority of his rank. All eyes were on him so he sent them a short nod. “You did good work today, we successfully eliminated another pack, although we got some help. You all go back now to report what happened, I will stay behind to see what’s going on here and will report to headquarters later.”

There were no questions, because no one was supposed to question the leader and because the sudden presence of vampires and wolves that were helping them was too much for the hunters to comprehend. Too much for Minki as well, actually, but he had no other choice than stick around. They’d not let him go just like that, he was sure of that.

The hunters gathered their weapons and pride before leaving the storehouse. Once the humans were gone, all the wolves changed back to their human forms, all with a blank expression. The vampires merely put aside their weapons and Sungmin sighed in relief.

“Kevin, I need some blood please.” Sungmin spoke softly and Kevin walked to him with a smile.

“You did great, hyung, thank you.” he said pulling his scarf out and showing his bare neck to Sungmin who sank his teeth in and drank. Twenty five beats of heart later he stopped and licked the wound for it to heal almost instantly.

“You see that? We are no monsters, we fight for the same purpose.” Yeonghae spoke behind Minki, already back in his human form as well.

Minki had to hold back a growl, the grip on his dagger so strong his knuckles were white. Sure they had saved his life, but even if he had died, the other hunters could’ve handled it perfectly. Plus; keeping his life or having his sister back with a sane mind, he’d pick the second one anytime. Ever so slowly he turned around to meet the other man’s eyes. Neither of them had aged even one bit since the last time they saw each other, making the memories he had all the more hurtful.

“Yeonghae...” He tried to keep his voice neutral, but was unable to keep the venom from seeping through. Eight years of hatred weren’t easily hidden, after all.

Yeonghae sighed expecting no less. “We promised Meeyon we wouldn’t hurt you if you didn’t raise a weapon against us, and I am sure she wants to rescue the relationship you two had. My reason to live is to make Meeyon happy, so I beg of you, open your eyes to see not all of us should be hunt down. You can help us guard Sosari, we can do it together.” The cahalith tried to pass his point in hopes to bring Minki to his side, or at least make sure he understood Meeyon was not in danger by staying beside them.

“Where is Meeyon?” Minki asked, letting the rest of the explanation slip past him. If she was still with these monsters, that meant she was still alive. How was that possible? Did they change her to one of their kind? “How is she?”

“Meeyon is perfectly fine, still human if that’s what worries you more. We married.” Yeonghae replied truthfully, raising his left hand to show off his wedding ring. He was still using the ring from when they got engaged, two beautiful silver rings, matching hers perfectly.

Minki stared at it for a while, before tearing his eyes away from it and looking back at Yeonghae’s face. His eyes wandered over the other man’s features. He remembered all his men being killed by this guy and his pack, remembered how Meeyon had picked them over him, remembered how... this actually was the second time this group spared his life. He couldn’t help a frown from creasing his forehead, turning away from the wolfman again, only to look at the other people –creatures? – present .

There were five guys he knew were wolfmen, four of them he remembered from their last encounter. Aside from them and Kevin, there were two more guys, tall and pale young men, both with vivid red irises. The one called Sungmin looked the most inoffensive and kind, the other was also looking at him with a blank expression but something told Minki that that vampire in particular was bored.

“Hyung...” Kevin spoke knowing he would be the only one Minki would accept to hear explanations from beside Yeonghae. “That day... I was not ready to fight. I surrendered with a vain hope they could spare me and they did, they offered me a house, a place to belong to, they adopted me as a blood doll and trained me, first Daroll-ssi didn’t want to allow me to fight, but I begged him I wanted to be of some help for them and he allowed even if half-hearted, they are good, hyung, the reason why we hardly have problems in Sosari with super naturals is because they are protecting the humans... please, hyung, believe in us.”

Minki’s eyes shot to Kevin once he spoke again, his frown deepening, before he turned to Yeonghae again. “I want to see Meeyon.” he then spoke, more demanding than questioning.

“Before you do, we’d ask you to report to your headquarters to avoid a fight. We live to a motto: the herd must not know. Hunters are still part of the herd but if you do not raise a hand against us we have no reason to fight you, since it’s not interesting for you to reveal to the world our existence and cause a disaster.” Seungi dared to speak softly and politely, using a humble tone.

“If I said I’d report to the headquarters, they’ll wait until I do.” he replied calmly, not even looking at the person speaking. “Do you guys always stick around to glare at someone ten against one, and then wonder why people think you’re dangerous?”

“We’re not glaring at you. Meeyon is important to all of us and we just want to make sure we won’t end up hurting her,” Seungi corrected and Wonshik took the chance to order the wolves to go back and make sure no pure blood was still alive. Kangdae pulled Sungmin, who pulled Seungi who pulled Chanhyeok and then all of them were out of the storehouse with the exception of Yeonghae, Wonshik and Younghyun.

Minki watched them all leave one by one, before finally turning to the last three. His dagger was still clutched tightly in his hand and he didn’t plan on letting go of it anytime soon. “Where does she live now?” he asked then, focusing solely on Yeonghae, because the other two were unknown to him.

“She is living in our house, but if you want, I can call her and ask her to go to her apartment. We kept it after the marriage for when we want to be alone.” Yeonghae explained.

Somehow that idea made Minki’s expression turn sour again. He reached out his free hand then, to get a phone from someone. “Can I call her?” He let a short silence fall before adding: “For all I know, she doesn’t want to see me.”

Yeonghae looked at Younghyun who pulled a mobile phone out of one of his many pockets, reaching it in Minki’s direction. “If she answers with a snarky tone, I played a prank on her last time we met and she’s still kinda angry with me,” the vampire advised as he shrugged.

Minki looked at the other with raised eyebrows, before easily jotting in his sister’s number without fail, bringing the phone to his ear then to listen to the dialling tone. It didn’t take that long for her to pick up, her voice indeed slightly cranky.

“What do you want this time?” she bit at him and he couldn’t help the smile from spreading over his face as he heard her voice.

“Meeyon, it’s me.” he then said, the words followed by a long silence. He waited patiently, knowing she’d reply soon enough, and indeed, not much longer she spoke again.

“Oppa.. Why are you calling me with Younghyun’s phone?” she asked, a slight tremble in her voice. There was another voice speaking close to her but he couldn’t understand the words, just heard the hum in the background. “Is everything alright with him?” He turned to look at the vampire, glancing him over once.

“Depends what you call alright,” he said, before quoting something their grandmother had always told them when they were young. “If you’re scared to lose someone, then don’t part with bad words,” He could hear her smile on the other side. “Younghyun’s fine,” he then reassured her. “I’m calling with his phone because I borrowed it from him. Can I come by and visit you?” He held his breath, not knowing what she’d think of that.

“Sure, of course!” the reply was almost immediate and he smiled again. “I mean...” she then muttered. “I don’t know if it’s alright... Is it alright if he does, sweetie?” He thought she was talking to someone on her side of the line, until Yeonghae suddenly answered.

“Of course it’s all right. Don’t worry, love.” Yeonghae spoke, loud enough for her to hear. Minki’s eyes once again found the other man’s face, but he remained silent, waiting for his sister to speak again.

“Are you coming now? I’ll go to the apartment so you know where to be, okay?” she soon said, making him nod even though she couldn’t see that. Yet it seemed she figured he did, because she merely continued. “Can you give me Yeonghae for a moment before you hang up?” He couldn’t help the frown that came back as she said that, but sighed and nodded.

“Yeah of course, I’ll see you in a bit then...” he spoke, to which she happily agreed. He passed the phone to Yeonghae at that.

“Yes, love?” He asked curiously.

“Uncle let Henry come over to keep me company this evening. Do you think it’ll be okay if I let him take me to the apartment? You need to tell me what happened when oppa’s gone later tonight, by the way. Are you alright? How’s everyone else, everyone’s alright?” she immediately rattled.

“Of course Henry should go with you, even if the vampires are under control the spirits are still a pain so you need a bodyguard. Everybody is fine we had unexpected help this time around. This time I already healed all the wounds. I’m in perfect shape.” he rambled back with a happy loving tone.

“I’m leaving,” Minki stated calmly in the middle of Yeonghae’s explanation, flipping the dagger in his hand and throwing it aside with a flick of his hand. It flew right past Yeonghae’s face, missing it by a hair’s width, and pinned itself into the wooden wall behind the werewolf. Without so much as another glance, he turned away, searching through the room to get his own guns back.

“Okay sweetie. I’ll see you in a while too, yes?” Meeyon meanwhile continued, oblivious to what her brother was doing at that moment. “I’m getting in the car now so see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you too.” He hung up and threw the mobile back to Younghyun with a sigh. The vampire took it and then walked to the dagger to add it to his collection. “I’ll take that as I’m not happy with you yet, but not as a war declaration. Wonshik?”

The older werewolf sighed and nodded. “If the dagger had hurt Hae it would be another story. But I won’t take much of that, Yeonghae.”

The younger uratha sighed again. “Yes, hyung. I’m itchy as well, but if he doesn’t try to kill I won’t fight back. Please don’t let the others go against this.” Wonshik nodded again and they left to catch up with Minki, the crescent moon shining brightly.

The man was out on the streets, walking in the shadows at the side of the road, reloading his guns with bullets filled with fluid silver. He was not paying attention to what followed behind him – or at least that’s how it seemed. When his guns were fine, he tucked them back in their holsters on his belt, before slipping a phone of his own out of his pocket and calmly dialling another number.

There was a short conversation between him and another man, obviously about the past events and him saying he’d be out for a bit but that he was fine. Once he hung up, he slipped around the corner, walking up to his car – a very nice model that made it clear he certainly wasn’t living in poverty. With a flick of his hand, he was holding on to the keys, unlocking the car and walking up to the driver’s side, before looking up, his eyes flawlessly finding the three.

“Anyone needs a ride?” he asked then, as if he already knew the answer would be negative.

But to his surprise Yeonghae walked up to the passenger’s seat, slipping in and waving to his cousin and best friend among the vampires as they passed by with a nod. “I’ll take the ride, hyung, they will still check this area to make sure no pure blood was spared.”

Minki sighed, but didn’t mention it, getting in his car as well and easily slipping the key in the ignition. He took a moment to settle himself onto his seat, before starting the car and driving off. The ride was silent. Even if Yeonghae had wanted to speak, the amount of ‘do not want’ coming from Minki was so evident he didn’t.

It was obvious Meeyon’s brother didn’t have any thoughts of speed limits, because he raced through the city way above the allowed speed. They reached the apartment much sooner than expected, so Meeyon obviously wasn’t there yet. Minki didn’t even bother getting out, staying in the car and casually grabbing a pack of cigarettes from his left, slipping one out and taking it between his lips, before picking his lighter out of his pocket and lighting it up.

Yeonghae on the other hand got out of the car. “If you want to wait there, it’s your choice because I have the keys.” Saying that, he marched to the apartment to wait for her inside the house.

Minki stayed behind, however, knowing full well how much his sister hated cigarettes and everything related to them. He calmly rolled open his window as he smoked up the one he lit. Once that was gone, thrown outside to remain there until someone else would pick it up and throw it away, he got out of the car as well, calmly walking up to the door and ringing the bell so Yeonghae would let him in – if Yeonghae would let him in.

But the wolfman calmly opened the door, already wearing a new set of clothes, to let his brother-in-law in. “I’m cooking something to eat, want some?” Minki shook his head shortly, but not necessarily impolitely.

“Not hungry,” he clarified, taking a few steps inside before stopping to take off his shoes. “Why is that silver ring not hurting you?” he then continued, finally asking the question that had been bothering him ever since he first saw it. “Werewolves can’t stand silver, not even touching it.”

“Correction, pure blood werewolves can’t stand it. I’m different. There are two kinds of werewolves in the world. The pure blood – or so we call them, for they didn’t sin like our ancestors – and the uratha – our kind that have been forsaken by the spirits. Our ancestors sinned against our Father Wolf. They received forgiveness from our mother Luna, even though they had been cursed, so we carry Father Wolf’s duty to protect the humans. Part of the things we received for being forgiven was to stand silver as long as it doesn’t enter in direct contact with our blood. Therefore, wounds caused by silver are still dangerous.” Yeonghae willingly explained, wanting to earn some trust.

The whole father wolf, mother earth, primal sin against the rules of God kind of explanation sounded more like nonsense to Minki than anything, but he didn’t comment on it, just walking to the door that lead to the living room. He looked around, remembering clearly the last time he was there, how he had attacked this vampire kid doing his sister’s laundry, how she had stopped them from fighting, how she had pointed a gun at him.

Right then the front door opened and he turned around to look straight into that vampire kid’s face. It took all of his self-control to not pull one of his guns and aim it at that face. When the pale young man stepped aside and his sister’s face – quite the same but noticeably older – came into view, he relaxed, a smile instantly gracing his features.

“Meeyon-ah...” he said, walking up to her and enveloping her in a hug the moment she stepped inside the house.

She didn’t object to that, but it was because of her pulling him close that he suddenly realised there was something in the way. Something very much in the way. And when he took a small step back to look down, his mouth dropped open in surprise. He looked up at her for confirmation, but she was merely smiling at him, her eyes so knowing that he realised it was no joke; she was actually pregnant. He hugged her again then, just pulling her against him for as much as her bellowing stomach allowed it, and she held him back just as tightly, her head fitting perfectly against his chest, his little sister fitting perfectly in his arms.

“It’s good to see you,” he whispered softly then, some other messages hidden in those words that he wouldn’t say out loud even if his life depended on it. Yeonghae pulled Henry to the kitchen to let the siblings alone, whispering to him not to talk about blood dolls for as long as her brother was there.

“I missed you...” Meeyon mumbled to her brother, allowing herself to relax in his arms as she breathed in his scent. He smelled like cigarettes, iron and something else she couldn’t exactly put her finger on; nothing like what she remembered. It had of course also been many years since she had last seen him. A long time for someone to change, yet her brother hadn’t changed at all. “Are you staying?” she then asked, but it implied more than just staying over for dinner or tea. He knew that too, which was why his answer took longer than it should’ve.

“I guess,” he then mumbled, stroking her hair gently. “I guess I am...” He sent a small smile her way as he let go of her a little, taking a step back. “Can’t let my little niece or nephew grow up without an uncle, now can I?” He looked so much like her brother when he smiled then, that she almost started crying. Almost, because she held back her tears and smiled a bright smile.

“Thank you,” she then said, taking hold of his hands and giving them a light squeeze. “You don’t know how much that means to me, oppa,” She held on to him a moment longer, before letting go, seemingly apologising with her eyes as she preceded him to the kitchen. He followed her, only to see her walking straight up to Yeonghae, pressing a kiss on his cheek and resting her head on his shoulder shortly.

It was so obvious she was in love that it made him smile, yet at the same time something still itched at the back of his mind, telling him this was wrong, that he was a monster. He pushed that feeling away – at least for now – and walked into the kitchen as well, casually asking if he needed to put anything on the table for dinner. Henry pointed the cabinet where the plates were and then excused himself to make a phone call.

Meeyon helped her brother getting the plates and set the table. Not long after, Yeonghae finished cooking and put up the food on the table as well.

“Well, feel free to dig in,” he spoke happily as he sat down and started serving her brother. But the moment his plate was filled, Minki passed it to his sister with a caring smile, holding up the empty plate he took from her so that Yeonghae could fill it up once again, the caring part of his smile dying away as his eyes turned to his sister’s husband, but at least he was not glaring this time.

Yeonghae shrugged and served him again. If her brother had never been told to serve the visitors first then it was his problem. Once his plate was filled again Yeonghae served himself, and then started eating without ceremony.

Minki started eating too, having to admit – although not out loud, he still had his pride – that the food was good. Next to him Meeyon was shoving food down her throat as if she hadn’t eaten in months, almost leaving even Yeonghae behind. Seeing them like that, they did really fit together and he had to hide a smile behind his hand when he realised that.

Not long after Henry was back and stopped when he saw them eating. “Seeing you guys enjoying food like that makes me hungry,” he joked, taking a seat next to Meeyon and far from her brother – he still clearly remembered the pain of being burnt.

“So...” Minki suddenly spoke, about three minutes after Henry came back, the awkward silence fully his fault and he knew it. “… how exactly do you vampires live if there’s the whole protecting humans kind of stuff going on?” His eyes moved to Henry, taking in the other decently this time, almost with a hawk-like expression.

“My creator was forced into becoming a vampire and he never took it well when he saw humans being killed while vampires feed. There’s no need for us to kill. Our bite has no venom and if we lick the wound it disappears. So my creator educated his children not to harm humans while feeding and executing the vampires that do that, because once we were humans too and it’s unfair that because we’ve been cursed we kill innocents just because.” Henry explained his point, making sure it was clear their intention was to protect humans.

Meeyon’s brother nodded, taking another bite and letting the silence thicken again. Once he swallowed, however, he eyed Henry again. “Hey about the last time we met...” he then started, making Meeyon momentarily stop eating to look at him.

Henry blinked eyeing Meeyon with worry. “What about it?”

“Sorry for pointing a gun at you.”

“Normal reaction from a hunter, even more if you thought I was going to harm your sister. No offense taken as long as it doesn’t happen again. You know us now. If you still raise a hand against us then it will have another meaning from now on.” Henry shrugged.

Minki raised a hand at that. “If I do it like this that means high five, kay?” he then said, tone slightly joking. From the corner of his eyes he could see Meeyon smiling as she continued eating and his heart filled with so much love for his little sister that it was almost hard to imagine he hadn’t ever had a decent conversation with her since he left home with most of the valuables, well over ten years ago.

Right then someone’s phone started ringing. Henry rolled his eyes because it was his, but he answered the phone right there. “Yes Chungyeol hyung?” Chungyeol rambled something on the other side of the line. Henry was never around when they had to fight because he was taking care of Meeyon, while Chungyeol was back home and there was no one to annoy, so he was calling to say he was going over to the wolves’ house. “I’m not at Soohwan’s, hyung, Meeyon’s brother is having dinner with her and since Hae is back I’m going home to keep you company. I’ll take Jia and Jihoon back home.” Chungyeol said something else and he and Yeonghae shared a small glance at each other, after Henry hung up he excused himself explaining that he would have to go to his adorable hyung.

Minki said a goodbye back, emptying his plate right after and leaning back a little in his chair as he chewed the last bite. He looked at the pot with food, then at Yeonghae who was still eating and Meeyon who was finishing her share as well. He had no idea what to say, feeling awkward and slightly misplaced, as if he was interrupting their family time. It was obvious the two were so used to living together that it had become something they didn’t have to think about anymore; the way they both sent occasional glances at each other as if to make sure the other was still there. He sighed softly, smiled then, and slowly pushed himself up from his chair.

“I should go,” he stated, not wanting to hinder their time together any longer, kind of wondering how their friends did it – sticking around these two. Yeonghae looked at him with his mouth full and then looked at Meeyon. He was fine with having her brother longer if it would make her happy. Meeyon looked up at her brother, seemingly exchanging some silent conversation through their gazes before she got up as well.

“I’ll let you out,” she said, preceding him out of the kitchen. Minki stopped for a moment at the door, looking back at Yeonghae. “I guess I’ll try and learn how to get along with you,” he said, which meant as much as “let’s be friends but I’m not going to say that out loud.”

Yeonghae nodded. “Same here,” and he sent his brother-in-law his trade mark boyish grin. Once the door was closed and Meeyon came back Yeonghae sent her a soft smile. “Feeling better now?” he questioned with care. She smiled, then walked up to him to press a kiss on his cheek and then rest her cheek on his shoulder. The next moment she was sobbing softly, her happiness so much she couldn’t contain it.

Yeonghae wrapped his arms around her and caressed her hair. “I told you; we just needed to open his eyes to our truth.”

“What happened?” she asked, in between the tears. “How did you run into him? How did you make him listen?”

“When we arrived at the pure blood’s hideout, he was already fighting them with a group of ten hunters. Looks like your brother found a very well built clan of hunters and is one of the heads. A werewolf was ready to attack him when I stepped in between. We finished them off, although the hunters had finished half the job. Of course, to avoid them attacking us and us having to fight them, Sungmin used his presence and manipulation abilities to halt their attack. Because I saved him, Minki allowed me to talk and explain.” Yeonghae explained softly.

“He’s still fighting?” she questioned, her voice slightly squeaky because of her surprise. “Leader of a group of hunters? But those hunters... How can he side with us if he’s with hunters? You said every human who knows about you has to die, so don’t you have to kill those hunters?”

Yeonghae shook his head. “They are humans but they are able to fight the supernatural. They won’t reveal the truth because it would lead to chaos. They can’t give vampire blood to every human in the world, so they can be slightly strong to fight. If they don’t raise a blade against us we won’t fight them either. If they don’t break any of our rules inside our territory, there’s no need to kill them.” Yeonghae explained.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him so tightly it almost hurt her arms. “I love you,” she whispered then, voice thick with tears. “I’m not sure what to feel right now. I want to cry and laugh and get angry at him for taking so long and cry more.” She let out a chuckle at that, pressing her forehead closer against his shoulder.

Yeonghae nodded. “He was still only thinking about you. He was probably trying to get stronger to snatch you away from me,” he commented

“Idiot,” She lifted her head a little and wiped her tears. “Even if he kidnapped me to a faraway place, I’d always find a way back to you,” She wriggled herself onto his lap, hiding her face against his shoulder again. “I’m so happy right now.”

“Well, I think now he understands that, right?” He kept holding her but with a hand he started caressing her tummy. “Plus I don’t think he would try to snatch you away knowing we’ll get a baby soon.”

“Never. He believes kids should be with their parents. If anything he’s going to try and like you solely because we are getting a baby,” she replied, her voice a little lighter already. She didn’t stop clinging to him however. “Have you thought about a name yet?”

“What about Minhee if it’s a girl and Chunghee if it’s a boy?” he followed her change of subject.

“I like Minhee,” she agreed. “It sounds a little like Meeyon and a little like Yeonghae. Chunghee is nice too, what about Minhae?” She chuckled at that.

“What about Yonhae then? or Yeongmee” he chuckled along with her.

“Or Yeongyon.” she laughed softly, before she looked up and pressed her lips on his, smothering her laughter in between their mouths.


	10. New Moon

But the happiness in Meeyon’s life was turning out to be an inverted situation for Simon. Sunhi had been set to go along with the vampire group. She was leading the pups and fought alongside Chungyeol, Kevin, Nina, and Elena, whom Daroll allowed Chungyeol to sire not so long ago. The fight should have been easy if the pure bloods they were designed to take down hadn’t taken an abandoned temple as hideout.

They won the fight but in a moment of distraction, Sunhi entered in the fire line of Chungyeol’s flame blade, which he discovered had some percentage of silver in its making. The contact left Sunhi seriously injured, and because of the silver the burn in her skin was much more visible.

Elena was assigned to take care of Sunhi as the other’s left to check the surroundings. The newborn vampire didn’t notice when a certain spirit entered the temple and whispered in Sunhi’s ear.

“You’re better dead and you know that… It’s not that you don’t believe in God. You know He exists and you know he never fought your kind… Simon’s soul belongs to Him and you’re taking from your _husband_ the right to be protected by His mercy,” When Sunhi looked up, the spirit had taken the figure of an angel and her already frail balance shattered at the sight. “You’re better off dead. Set him free…” The spirit disappeared at that, leaving the uratha in a shock, imprisoned in her own mind.

When Chungyeol came back, he noticed her wounds were not healing and she was actually even more hurt. “She is hurting herself every time I try to get close to her!” Elena shrieked and Chungyeol kind of figured what happened when he stepped closer. He sighed before knocking Sunhi down. The wolves were not against the act, for they had tracked the spirits essence around her. When they got back to Soohwan’s mansion Chungyeol called for him loud and clear.

“Soohwan, Sunhi fell for a Spirit’s influence! We can’t bring her back.”

The next moment Simon was hurrying down the stairs, holding the almost sleeping Shinil on one arm, the other used to keep his balance so he wouldn’t fall down. “What happened?” he asked almost frantic, trying to keep his voice in check in order to not wake or scare his son too much. “What’s wrong?”

“We don’t know. Sunhi was extremely distracted during the fight, and instead of dodging to a safe place, she dodged to my side while I was attacking and my blade hurt her. I thought the burn would heal almost instantly, but it looks like my sword has silver in it too. I left Elena taking care of her and she said suddenly Sunhi started talking in a weird language and her wounds stopped healing. Every time we tried to get close, she would make another wound in herself. I think a spirit managed to influence her. But I have no clue how.” Chungyeol explained and Soohwan asked Simon to take the kid upstairs and come back, for maybe he was the only one able to bring her back.

The human did as told, figuring that it would be best if Shinil slept upstairs and didn’t see his mother in such a state. He took his time to tuck in his son, however, pressing a kiss on the young boy’s cheek and citing some old fairytale he vaguely remembered. Shinil soon was asleep, giving him the opportunity to go back down in only a little over ten minutes. Once he was downstairs again, he joined the group of people gathered around Sunhi.

“Any changes?” he asked, crouching down next to her and taking her hand, threading their fingers together as he stared at her face in obvious worry and desperation. Soohwan shook his head. “Chungyeol said the battle took place in a temple, can you guess what it did to the harmony between her flesh and spirit?” he asked softly, not at all accusing.

Simon stilled, before lifting her up in his arms, pressing her unmoving body against him and silently begging for her to come back to him. He pressed a kiss on her lips, before hiding her head against his shoulder.

“Sunhi, baby, come back to me. Don’t leave me, I need you by my side,” he frantically spoke into her ear, not caring that everyone in the house would be able to listen in to that. “You’re the biggest miracle that God has ever made happen in my life, don’t just let them take you away from me now. Your son needs you, baby, I need you. I love you.” He pressed another kiss on her cheek, feeling the tears brim in his eyes.

He was pretty sure that he had been the one to make this come about. If he had not doubted himself so much, if he had just loved her like he wanted to, like she deserved to be loved; unconditionally, then something like this would never have happened. By doubting himself he had made her doubt him too and that doubt was now leading to her downfall. It should’ve been him suffering on his own, not her. Never her.

At first there was no reaction from her, she was still unmoving but the cuts she had caused herself started healing, the cut caused by Chungyeol’s blade was still a violent bright red but the slash itself had been closed. Soohwan patted his shoulder and asked him to let her rest.

“She’ll wake up sooner or later. She heard you, Simon.” the Alpha assured but asked him to come with him. Simon didn’t listen at first, holding his wife close to him still. After a moment, he bend down a little to scoop her up in his arms completely, carrying her over to the couch and gently putting her down there, taking a blanket from the armrest to cover her with it. Only after pressing another kiss on her temple and looking at her for a while with sorrow-filled eyes, did he turn away to follow Soohwan.

Once they were away from the whole group of vampires and pups that had fought alongside her, Soohwan spoke. His tone was neutral even though they had already foreseen that when the two married. “Simon, my daughter loves you and the last thing she wants is for you to hold back your life to be beside her. Please be sincere with her and with yourself. If you’re beside her because of duty, please don’t. Most of us believe in your God, Simon, as vampires also do, but we just have the belief we’re not the ones in his favour.”

Simon eyed his father-in-law for a while, his face an unreadable mask, before he nodded shortly and made a slight bow. It seemed at that moment as if Simon had confined himself in his own mind together with his wife, for he did not say a word, nor let any emotion shine through on his face.

For the rest of the night, Sunhi remained asleep. She hardly moved and only woke up around eleven in the morning. The whole time, Shinil kept asking for his mom and even cried when he tried to wake her up but she didn’t move. Maybe it was his cry that guided her back.

Simon had been cuddling Shinil the whole night, taking him to the empty big bed even, because he knew neither of them wanted to be alone that night. The boy had lay there sniffling for a while, constantly shushed by Simon’s soft singing and coaxing, until he had finally curled up against Simon’s chest, tiny hands clutching at his T-shirt, and had fallen asleep.

Simon himself remained staring at his son for a long while after that, before sleep pulled him under as well. But they both woke up at seven in the morning already, Simon bringing his son down to get him his bottle of milk and then basically camping over near the couch. It seemed as if the boy knew his mother would be coming by, however, because he walked up to her moments before she did.

Sunhi blinked and groaned when her body ached due to the hold of energy to stop her healing. When she saw Shinil sniffing beside her she reached out a hand, gaining his attention. The little boy clung to her tightly calling “Mommy! Mommy!” nonstop. She tried her best to calm the kid down, but it didn’t work that well.

Simon got up as well right then, walking over to the little boy and lifting him a little so he could decently hug his mother. There was a soft smile on his face and relief in his eyes, his mouth forming the words “Welcome back” without sound. Once Shinil seemed to calm down, both by seeing his mother responding to him again and Simon’s constant soothing words, he put the boy back on the ground, using his then free hand to take hold of Sunhi’s.

“How are you feeling, baby?” he asked softly.

Sunhi averted her eyes from him and kept caressing her son’s cheek. “Very tired. My whole body is aching.” Her voice was hoarse and tired. She tried to sit up, making sure that the wound caused by Chungyeol’s sword was well hidden from her baby’s eyes. Simon felt slightly rejected, but tried to ignore the stab of pain that caused inside of his chest. Instead, he leaned in and pressed a kiss on her cheek.

“Thank God you’re back,” he whispered as he pulled away again, crouching down then to let Shinil wrap his little arms around his neck for a moment.

She smiled slightly. “Where are the others?” she questioned, but as soon as the words left her mouth Kangdae showed up saying the others were doing their job and Wonshik was cooking them lunch. He asked if she wanted to be taken to the bedroom and she nodded smiling at her brother.

Kangdae looked at Simon. “Little bro, you take Shinil to the kitchen. Wonshik made his lunch already. Kiddo, go eat so you can cuddle your mom for the rest of the day, okay?” The boy nodded to that. Simon did as told as well, kind of assuming Kangdae wanted him out of the room for a bit. He swooped Shinil up in his arms and – while tickling the boy’s stomach relentlessly – carried him into the kitchen.

Kangdae took Sunhi up and questioned what happened during the fight. She told him about the spirit and how she stupidly fell for its trap as they walked up to the bedroom. It was easier to talk to Kangdae than to her dad for she knew Kangdae would not scold her that much. Once she explained everything, he told her it’d be alright and then went back down. Arriving at the kitchen he pointed at Simon immediately.

“You. Better put some sense in that head of hers.” he said and pulled Shinil’s attention to him, clearly showing he would entertain the kid while they could have a couple talk. Simon was all too glad to agree to that, trying his best not to run to the bedroom and look like an idiot. He was walking pretty quick anyway, though. The moment he got to Sunhi, he wrapped his arms around her, careful not to hurt her wounds, and buried his face in her hair.

“You are so stupid,” he whispered, but it was no insult, just a way to put his fear into words. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack or is that just me hallucinating? Why would you be so careless?” She didn’t return the hug. Not because she didn’t want to but because she was feeling weak and as he said stupid. But she had to be sincere with him. The trying to go along with his lie was not working.

“I’m sorry... I just don’t know if this marriage should continue or not. I keep thinking I’m a mistake in your life,” she confessed, already feeling her body tremble.

The words effectively made him freeze, and when he let go and took a step back to look at her, his expression was blank. “W-what are you talking about?” he managed to stammer, sitting down on the window sill as he wasn’t sure his legs would be able to carry him much longer. “What mistake? Why would you be a mistake?” He stared at her after that, his mouth moving still but no sounds coming out anymore.

She smiled sadly. “I tried to go along, to pretend I don’t know you ask for forgiveness for your sins. I know the only sin you’ve committed so far was marry something inhuman. I know Simon, and I’m starting to regret ever telling you.” she spoke softly as if she was talking about the weather, trying not to show any emotion out.

“What? Dear God, no!” he protested, immediately walking over to the bed again, taking hold of her hand and then her face, lifting it so she would look at him. “You are not inhuman, Sunhi. I am not asking for forgiveness for marrying you. Why would you even think that?” His voice was almost desperate.

“Then why would you sin, Simon? Why would it be if it’s not related to what I really am?” she questioned, her voice was still soft, still controlled but her eyes were showing how desperate she was for not knowing what was the best thing for the both of them.

“Baby...” he started, and then retaliating because he was trying to get a serious point across. “Sunhi, I have asked for forgiveness for my sins at least once a week ever since I could talk. You are not a sin to me, stop thinking that,” He looked deep into her eyes, before letting go of her face and crouching down in front of her.

“I won’t deny that I sometimes think of it, worry about it. You and your family, you are after all still killing, even though you’re trying to protect humans. I don’t see it as a sin myself, but everything I have been taught tells me it is, that killing is bad. It’s true that I have pondered about this often, sometimes I wondered if I was going against my religion...”

He looked up at her again. “But frankly I don’t care, Sunhi. I don’t care what my religion supposedly tells me. I believe in God and in doing good, but there’s just some things that aren’t good in this world and killing evil vampires and werewolves is not a sin to me. To me you’re doing a job in favour of God’s love for the humans. I believe in God, and He loves all his children, no matter what. He is forgiving and He knows we mean well.”

There was a short pause, Simon swallowing a few times and trying to compose himself so that he wouldn’t start crying or messing up his speach. “I believe in you too, Sunhi. I believe that you are doing a good thing, that you are truly good inside. I love you. We have a son and he should be enough proof to not make you feel like a mistake in my life. You’re not a sin, you’re not committing sins, that is what I believe. And if what I believe is wrong, then I will stay ignorant to the truth, because I never want you to leave me and I never want you to think so lowly of yourself ever again.”

Sunhi broke down and started crying, Simon’s words calming her heart and the tremble of her balance giving place to the tremble of her emotions and overflowing love for him. “I’m sorry… I just fear so much I’m not the right one for you, Simon. You are my reason to live, you and the little life we both put in this world. For you two I’ll make sure to always come back safe.” She wrapped her arms around him and cried on his shoulder.

Simon held her, stroking her back and letting her cry out whatever she had to cry out. His own tears seemed to fade as he took on the task of comforting her, being there for her. He let her cry in silence for a while, before speaking again. “You are the right one, Sunhi,” he told her, smiling against her hair. “For me you will always be the right one. Stop doubting yourself on that.”

She nodded and let go to wipe her tears and smile at her husband, wanting desperately to have her son with them at that moment. Once she was confident her tears were nowhere in sight she pulled Simon to her to give him a rather passionate kiss.

At that moment Kangdae decided to open the door with Shinil in his arms. Upon seeing the two on the bed, he quickly covered the kid’s eyes with a playful ‘Oops not a good moment, kiddo, don’t look. Mommy and daddy are being intimate.’ Shinil on the other hand was trying to take his uncle’s hands from his eyes, exclaiming that he wanted to see what was going on.

Of course Simon couldn’t just keep kissing his wife as his innocent little son was around, but he didn’t want to let go either, so he settled for carefully holding on to her as he slipped down into a seating position next to her. The moment he looked at the door, he smiled at Kangdae shortly and then called for his son, which effectively made the boy struggle out of Kangdae’s arms – who of course let him go easily – to run over to the bed and jump onto it.

Simon immediately used his free arm to lift Shinil off of the mattress, easily tucking him in between Sunhi and himself. The kid didn’t need long to grab on to his mother and just cling to her like that, babbling away in that baby language only three year olds amongst themselves seemed to understand. Sunhi held him back with all the love she felt and smiled at her brother who sighed and nodded. His sister could be such worrywart sometimes.

After those incidents, Daroll used one of the previous Prince’s bars called The Redcat as their meeting place, where the whole group of vampires and werewolves could decide what should be done next. Not only that, but Kangdae and Gwangjin even started working there as bartenders and Sunhi became the permanent entertainer. The bar, once known as a prostitution point, slowly turned into a high society meeting point where only the high class had access. The humans going there were few and most of them were rich youngsters that didn’t mind momentarily losing themselves in vampire kisses and never knowing what actually happened to them.

One fine night, Daroll was talking with Soohwan about the last pure blood territory inside Sosari. It was a very huge pack and they would certainly need all the best warriors to go. The other people discussing the matter were Chungyeol, Wonshik, Sungmin, Younghyun, Yeonghae and Seungi who had nothing better to do. Yeonghae because Meeyon was babysitting Shinil and they couldn’t risk showing him inappropriate actions. His parents needed some time alone to do that themselves.

They were choosing a date for the attack when Kangdae knocked on the door saying someone was willing to talk with the Prince.

“Who wants to see me?” Daroll asked surprised because of Kangdae’s wide grin and playful tone. The next moment, a very well-dressed Minki stepped into the room, twirling his car keys around a finger, before suddenly closing his other fingers around them, stopping a step passed Kangdae and sending a relaxed smile into the room in greeting to everyone present.

“I heard you could use some more firepower to kick some pureblood butt,” he announced casually. “Thought I might come in handy there.”

Daroll smiled. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Hunter. I’m Daroll, Prince of Sosari and this is Soohwan Alpha of Yeonghae’s pack, certainly the strongest uratha pack around here.” His tone was neutral.

Soohwan looked at Yeonghae and sighed. “I hope this means a long term alliance with your group of hunters, Minki-ssi.” Said hunter shrugged, slipping his keys into his coat pocket and easily walking up to the table.

“My group of hunters, yes. I’m not sure how many that will be. There’s still men slipping to our side as we speak, others are sticking with Hwangki. So far I have about fifty men with guns and experience and another dozen without experience but with good training.” He slipped a paper out of his pocket, easily unfolding it and putting it down on the table. It was a map of the neighbourhood the purebloods lived in, places and routes drawn out in different colours.

“We’ve been tailing them for about three years now, losing quite a few men to them along the way. They change their pattern only once a year, so I know when and where to attack in order to surprise them,” He patted some signs on the map as he spoke, also showing the best way to enter. “This map shows all the information we know.” He then concluded, standing up straight again. He glanced around the table once, before he nodded shortly at Daroll, turned around and started walking back out of the room.

Daroll marvelled over the information and asked Minki to wait. “I know it’s not something Hunters believe is right, but I hope we can forge something stronger after this. We’re planning the attack to be in three days, during the last day of the gibbous moon. Yeonghae will lead the wolves and the Rahus will be strong enough to be a good back-up. I suppose the star is the best place to do the gathering?” Minki stopped in the doorway, looking back at him shortly.

“If I make it out of this alive, we might just do that, yes,” he replied then, the relaxed smile from earlier coming back. “I wish I had more time to spend on this, but there’s a beautiful girl dancing downstairs and I have three companions with me who might not know the standards of high society, so I’ll go save their necks. If there’s any need to contact us; my sister probably still knows my phone number by heart.” The smile turned into a grin as he slipped the keys back out of his pocket, returning to his earlier habit of twirling them around a finger as he walked back the way he had come from; doing his best not to show how uncomfortable he was feeling under the whole pact thing.

“This will be extremely dangerous, hyung.” Younghyun protested as soon as the door was closed and Minki’s footsteps were far away. “Even if they will be fighting alongside us, they can make mistakes and shoot one of us.” he continued, getting his point through, out of the whole coven Younghyun was the least prone to accept an alliance with hunters, he was even surprised at how Daroll seemed so open to it already.

“That’s why this is the crucial test, Younghyun. Trust can only be achieved if we try to make it work. Our first fight together was not a perfect sync either and even now we can still make mistakes. Sunhi was hurt by Chungyeol’s blade recently, remember? We will only know if we try, don’t be pessimist,” Soohwan retorted while Daroll nodded. “In any case we can have Sungmin’s ability to prevent any internal fight.” Everybody looked at Sungmin and nodded making the vampire wide his eyes.

“Wait just a moment there! He said fifty men! Are you expecting me to hold back fifty hunters if anything goes wrong?” Sungmin nearly shouted.

Kangdae walked to him and patted his shoulder. “We trust you,” the rahu teased, making Sungmin groan. “Oh man, you can always drink mine or Seungi’s blood to pump up!” Kangdae boomed and pulled the cute vampire away from the meeting room to the bar, Seungi followed them grinning as Sungmin was still pouting.

After the meeting was over, Yeonghae went back to his house were Meeyon was still playing with Shinil, the boy was holding her tummy and trying to listen to the baby inside.

“Hey, love.” Yeonghae called sweetly, making Shinil look at him and smile, trying to pass the point he felt his little cousin kicking just a few moments before. Meeyon sent a smile in Yeonghae’s direction, softly taking Shinil’s hands from her stomach and offering him some food. The boy gladly agreed – he seemed to have an even bigger appetite than her husband – and she offered him a plate of food. Once he was busy enough with eating, she walked up to Yeonghae, supporting her lower back with her hands.

“Did you reach a plan?” she asked, offering him her cheek for a kiss. She’d normally offer her mouth, but with the little Shinil mere meters away from them that just didn’t seem like a good idea.

He sighed. “We did but I’m not sure you’ll like it.” He wondered how to break the news to her.

“Why not? Are they sending you in on your own?” she joked, before patting her cheek with a finger and pouting slightly. “No hello kiss? I’m disappointed.”

He smiled slightly deciding to give her the kiss first, before peeking to see if the boy was watching and stealing a peck from her lips. Only then did he take her to the couch and asked her to take a seat, holding her hand in his as he spoke. She did as asked, resting a hand on her stomach. “Apparently uncle likes me to lead the pack so we’re going on the last day of my moon. In case anything goes wrong we can make use of the full moon then. The group fighting this time will be extra big because your brother will fight alongside.”

“Oh my!” she exclaimed before he even finished, but she was totally not looking at him, instead staring down at her stomach. “I think we got ourselves a fighter, Yeonghae,” she then continued, stroking her bulging belly lovingly. “He just keeps kicking me,” She smiled fondly, before looking up at him again. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

He rested his hand on her belly and smiled. “Hey, champion, take it easy,” He smiled even wider when he felt the kicks. “I just hope he won’t think he is ready to be out of there, while I’m away.” He spoke brightly, looking at her before he turned serious again. “Meeyon, your brother is coming with us.” he repeated the information.

“Oh..” she responded. “Oh, well, that’s good,” She smiled at him. “Finally someone I can trust to decently take care of you.” she then joked.

He caressed her cheek with a slightly relaxed smile. “We’ll be off in a few days and we hope we can set a strong alliance with the hunters after this fight.”

“Just bring my brother back alive and safe and you will,” she replied. “He leads the biggest part of the hunters now. You’ll need him.”

He nodded. “I think Shinil is looking at us just waiting to see something inappropriate.” he whispered in her ears and chuckled.

“We should not let him achieve that then,” she replied, a soft chuckle in her own voice as well. “Shinil dear, you want some dessert?” she said, getting up a little only to let out a pained grunt and sit back down. “I swear, this stomach is just bad for my balance,” she muttered. “He better come out when I’m nine months down or I’ll be making you get him out.”

Yeonghae chuckled. “Ok, love. You heard her, champion, less than two months to go.” He stood up at that to help her to the kitchen.

On the day of the attack, Minki and his group were standing at the meeting spot. Many of them were mumbling amongst each other, obviously still not trusting the whole pact idea too much. Minki himself was leaning against a street light, casually using one of his daggers to carve something out of a piece of wood. He was still deeply concentrated on this task, when suddenly the noise amongst his gang members died away.

He looked up, seeing the group of werewolves and vampires approaching. It was nothing special, just a group of people (rather small compared to their own numbers), and yet they gave off a dangerous vibe. Some of his men shifted in place and he saw others reaching for their weapons, so he quickly pushed himself up from the street light, walking up to the people. Even though Daroll was supposedly the leader, he turned to Yeonghae first, praying that the guy would work along as he wrapped one arm around his shoulders and said a happy greeting, a wide grin on his face.

“Most of them are suspicious and anxious,” he then hissed through his teeth, aiming to be heard by the whole group of supernaturals. “It’s going to be hard until you’ve proven to be on their side.”

Yeonghae grinned “It’s ok, Big Bro, it was not easy the first time we tried to fight together. Fortunately back then, none of the vampires were using silver weapons, quite different from today,” The words followed carelessly and even amused. “Meeyon sends a hug and a good luck kiss.” This time the words were loud enough for a few hunters to hear.

Daroll patted Minki’s shoulder and walked to the group of hunters. “Today I see a dream come true. I know you must all be doubtful about our intentions but I assure you, my wish as the leader of the vampires in Sosari is to prevent humans from succumbing to our curse. If today proves to be of good results for all of us, I kindly ask of you, hunters, to make sure my kind is following my simple rule: Kindreads must not kill while feeding.”

Once Daroll silenced, Wonshik spoke on behalf of Soohwan who was already too old to partake in such great fights. “On behalf of the uratha, I assure you that our mission is to protect humans, not only from vampires, but from other supernaturals too. The pure bloods are our enemies because they do not care for human lives as we do, but there are more entities you can’t even imagine hunting you. So you humans that from preys became predators, we’d ask cooperation in finding and dealing with the supernaturals for the sake of those blind to our truth.”

The whole supernatural group waited to see how the hunters would react to their words. Minki, who had visibly loosened up the moment his sister was mentioned, walked up to his group again, easily making his way through them as they stepped aside to let him pass. At one point he stopped, putting a hand on one of the men’s shoulder and pushing him up to the front. The guy called Boksu frowned, looking back at him, but saying nothing about it. Once Minki stopped pushing him, Boksu focused his eyes on the supernaturals, looked them over once and then turned back to the humans.

“Men,” he spoke, and even though he didn’t have a surprisingly loud voice, he was heard by everyone anyway. “Today is a change of our usual habits. Today we will not only fight against werewolves and other scum, but we will also fight with them. I know many of you are uncertain of their loyalty, but the boss has promised us they won’t harm us and if anything, I still believe in him,” Boksu, left a short silence, before nodding. “Let’s fight with honour. We do not kill to murder, but to protect.” He turned around on his heels, walked over to the group of supernaturals and stopped in front of them.

Boksu looked them over once again, before suddenly drawing a dagger and sticking it in the muddy ground between them. “If any of my men die today at one of your hands...” he then said solemnly. “… I swear I will find every single one of you and-” He got cut when Minki whistled lowly. As he looked back, Meeyon’s brother shook his head shortly, something close to amusement flashing in his eyes.

“I told you you’re ten years too late for that,” he then said, amusement in his voice. “If anyone’s ever killing that brat it’s going to be me. I claim that right as his brother-in-law.” After saying that, Minki casually went back to the piece of wood in his hands, his dagger still making cuts and carves in it to detail his design. Many of the faces had turned to him, surprised eyes, people who didn’t know yet that his sister was married to one of those, but he ignored them all. For a minute he just continued carving in silence, before he looked up at his men again.

“Well then...” he sighed, rolling his shoulders and slipping the dagger back onto his belt. “Time to get this thing going. We have a nest to clear,” With a flick of his wrist, the wooden figurine was sent sailing through the air, meant for Yeonghae to catch it. It was a small replica of his sister, complete with her pregnant belly. “Remember that you have to get back to that and keep it whole,” he muttered between his teeth, completely sure that his brother-in-law would hear him. “Daroll-ssi.. I suggest you tell us where our places are.” he then spoke up, making all of his men turn to look at the supernaturals again, wondering who exactly Daroll-ssi would be.

Daroll nodded and stepped aside raising his voice. “Hunters, please pay attention to the urathas so you won’t shoot any of them by accident. They will all fight in their dalu form, or a nearly human form. In other words they will seem more human than the werewolves we’ll fight.” Daroll looked at Chanhyeok and the later nodded, stating they could morph without being sensed by the enemy.

“We divided ourselves in smaller groups: Kangdae, Seungi and Sungmin” The three stepped ahead and Sungmin waved happily gaining slap on his head by Kangdae and a chuckle from Seungi. The two werewolves then changed revealing two grey furred creatures, but one was taller, more muscular and had a slightly red-ish tone to the fur.

“Yeonghae, Wonshik and Younghyun” Daroll spoke again and the three moved to the left Yeonghae revealing his brown furred form while Wonshik showed to be the only white furred wolf. Younghyun just nodded at the hunters when his name was pronounced.

“Chanhuk, Gwangjin and me.” the Prince spoke again and the two mentioned urathas also transformed to show a red furred uratha and a pitch black one.

“The other group with no urathas consists of Chungyeol, Nina and Elena, they are vampires, and also Kevin, Nina’s Blood Doll. He is a human like you that periodically drinks vampire blood. Now all of you can choose with whom you want to fight along. If you wish to make a group solely composed by hunters, we’ll try to assist and protect you.”

Daroll then pulled out his two silver swords and showed it to them. “These are my weapons, simple silver swords.” All the other vampires but Chungyeol showed their weapons. Everyone’s eyes turned to the only vampire left in the end, waiting for him to show his weapon. Minki was busy fixing his own weaponry, but he did keep an eye on the vampire, as it was the one with looks he trusted the least out of all of them.

“Chungyeol,” Daroll called with a low tone.

“Do I really have to, Dall?” the second in command whined. The prince nodded and Chungyeol sighed, taking out his sword from its scabbard. The mere contact with oxygen and the blade lighted up in a blue flame that did not consume the weapon, the supernatural blade giving Chungyeol the most lethal aura. All the humans took a slight step back, staring at the weapon in awe.

But the next moment Minki was already loading his gun with his own special silver bullets, stepping up to the group. “I’ll go with my little brother,” he stated simply, ruffling the fur on Yeonghae’s head with a grin.

Soon the rest of the humans were forming groups as well, clogging together with those they had always fought with in the past as well. There were a few select groups of two or three people that timidly walked up to the supernaturals, most of them belonging to the group that had been with Minki on the previous big fight they ended together. It didn’t take long for them to be organized, silver daggers or swords and loaded guns in hand, ready to take on the nest.

It was certainly a surprise for the pure bloods when they suddenly had their senses overloaded by a mix of uratha, vampire and blood dolls barging in their hideout. The once silent factory got filled with howls and battle cries as the small groups barged in from different directions. Soon the Alliance had surrounded the pure blood pack and the familiar smell of blood filled the air.

At one side Sungmin stepped in alone, making three werewolves howl and attack him. The vampire smirked and hissed in their direction. He bent through his right leg and positioned his sword horizontally, waiting for the right moment to strike. Once the first werewolf was in his attacking rage, he used his brand new silver sword. The weapon made a deep cut in the werewolf’s abdomen and it howled in pain. Sungmin took the opportunity to step on its slightly bent legs and jump over the beast, kicking its head from behind and jumping at the second werewolf.

While Sungmin landed, Seungi jumped on the first injured enemy and with his claws took hold of it, biting its neck and immobilizing the beast. The nearby hunters took the opportunity to mercilessly stab the werewolf. From the corner of his eyes, Seungi noticed a particular hunter holding up a gun in his direction and swiftly threw the injured pure blood to the side, it got shot in the middle of the forehead, falling onto the ground unmoving.

At the same time Kangdae was forcing the second injured werewolf on its knees as Sungmin drank its blood. The seemingly docile vampire had a quite weird fetish; experimenting different kinds of blood. Kangdae had accepted his kiss once, and even though Sungmin lost his cold attitude for a few days, the strength and sensation of fulfilment were much better than a human’s blood provided, so he kept drinking werewolf blood after that. Once he was satisfied he mercilessly cut the werewolf’s head off.

The unexpected outcome of that little distraction was two hunters defeating in the third werewolf with loads of silver bullets. Sungmin nodded in thanks at the duo as he threw his sword in their direction, preventing a fourth werewolf from harming them. Unarmed, Sungmin decided to test his new ferocity by using his martial arts to get another werewolf to be extremely dizzy before Chungyeol could cut him to pieces, which earned him a ‘get out of my fun!’ from the second eldest vampire.

Indeed the flame blade in Chungyeol’s hand had already sent two werewolves to oblivion, they were currently burning to ashes. The hunters near him only made sure that side battles like Sungmin’s wouldn’t turn to his back, but the caused damage was little on their side. Once a werewolf was near enough of badly hurting one of the hunters, there would always be an uratha or vampire to pull them and strike, not allowing a single human to fall.

Daroll and Chanhyeok were taking care of all their backs, not allowing their enemies a way to escape. Kevin proved to be a great help in building up the trust of the hunters, as he asked to be the Prince’s left hand and was granted the wish. The two fought in perfect sync and the hunters felt an urge to know what it felt like to have a vampire covering your back.

Nina and Elena studied the hunters and swiftly started dancing among them dealing a lot of extra damage to the bullets and un-focusing the enemies into losing track of the hunters. Every time one werewolf seemed to be lucky enough to get too close to comfort to Elena, the said enemy would suddenly feel one part of its body missing and some agonizing pain not only caused by silver, but by fire as well. Chungyeol was good at defending his companion.

Gwangjin decided that he was better set with a lot of hunters at his side than the vampires, so he acted as a distraction and every once in a while caused some serious damage on the enemies before handing the werewolves to be finished off by the hunters.

Like that, the pure blood clan slowly fell in the hands of the Alliance. But at the other side of the hall where Yeonghae and his groups were fighting the clan’s leaders, they faced something slightly unexpected; the pure bloods outnumbered them too much for comfort.

Wonshik saw himself engaged in a one on one fight with a much bigger and ferocious werewolf, whereas Younghyun tried to keep himself behind Yeonghae like they usually fought; first Yeonghae immobilized the enemy and then Younghyun cut it to pieces. But they could hardly perform their combined attacks with so many wolves surrounding them.

At one point Yeonghae had to dodge at the same time as Younghyun got attacked, which lead the uratha to jump backwards and have the vampire to use him as support to jump to the other side. The two friends eyed each other and sprinted in different directions. Yeonghae dealing with two enemies, Younghyun with three.

A little later, Yeonghae managed to seriously injure one of his enemies and threw it in Minki’s direction, who was finishing one of the other werewolves off. The hunter leader didn’t miss a beat at jumping at the werewolf and cutting its throat with his dagger. Younghyun had also managed to cut an arm from one of his enemies and blind another one. Minki took the opportunity to shoot that one in the head, planning to cut off the head later. But Younghyun was the one doing that, in the middle of dodging an attack from the third enemy he was dealing with.

The fight seemed to be finished when Wonshik killed his enemy and took a step back, ready to run to Gwangjin’s aid since he had three werewolves surrounding him and the other hunters with him were dealing with another two. The moment Wonshik left their side, Yeonghae finished off his second foe and sprinted to help Younghyun, who got injured in his ankle, which had seriously decreased his agility. Yeonghae bit the werewolf’s neck to let Younghyun stab it in the chest. When the two let the dead body fall down, another werewolf seemed to appear out of thin air, jumping in Yeonghae’s direction with clear access to the latter’s neck.

Younghyun noticed the attack, but he was too slow to pull Yeonghae away from the danger. The werewolf would have been seriously injured if it was not for three well aimed bullets penetrating the pure blood’s head. Yeonghae turned to Minki in surprise and then nodded in thanks. He offered his blood so Younghyun could heal faster but the latter rejected. When they turned to the few fights still going on around the factory, Minki suddenly shouted at Younghyun. “Behind you!”

Yeonghae grinned amused when he turned to see the werewolf that had jumped behind Younghyun penetrated by the latter’s sword in the abdomen and another sword sticking through its neck. Sungmin grinned at the younger vampire. “Babyhyun, accept the offer, werewolves are tasty.” Sungmin pulled his sword back out and sank his teeth to drink some more blood.

“If you continue like this you’ll get addicted,” Younghyun protested and Sungmin shrugged, kicking the dead body away.

“I have free blood for as long as Seungi and Kangdae are alive, so who cares?” the petit vampire slipped away, ready to shed some more blood and Younghyun rolled his eyes.

“Me. The house gets too loud when you’re hyper, hyung.” he scoffed.

All in all the fight finished with vampires and humans holding few scratches but nothing serious. The victory was a total 100% – Kevin rushing to Younghyun and offering him blood to heal the almost cut off foot.

It was three in the morning when Meeyon opened her eyes, looking next to her to see an empty place on the bed. She sighed, heaving her tired body out of the bed and staggering towards the bathroom. Despite the protests of Yeonghae, the whole wolf pack and Simon, she decided to spent the last few weeks in her own apartment again, because if she was in the werewolf mansion, there was always too much going on and she could never just sit still like she was supposed to. It was better in her own apartment where there were no little kids running around all the time either. The only problem was that if Yeonghae was out hunting, she was alone. But she had assured him that she would be fine. And so far, she had been.

With a relieved sigh, she let herself sink down on the toilet seat, a hand supporting her now very huge stomach. When she was done, she remained seated for a moment longer, until she figured she could try getting up. It went rather slowly, lifting herself from the seat again with the accompanying pain and difficulty she had grown used to by now. The walk back to the bedroom was slow and once again painful, her swollen feet having a hard time carrying her oversized body.

Things went wrong when she sat down on the bed again, however, as a sudden surge of pain shot through her, making her gasp for air in shock. She sat bowed over for a moment, before suddenly realizing with a start what was going on. Immediately her hand shot out, to her phone, using the number 3 speed dial to call her mother. It didn’t take three dials for her mother to pick up, voice sleepy but her questions flowing in full.

“Mom, my water broke,” was all Meeyon could get in between, but that was enough. “Yeonghae’s out. Could you come pick me up and take me to the hospital?” Her mother agreed almost instantly, and even though she was clutching at her stomach, she still forced herself to use the number 5 speed dial, calling up Soohwan’s phone, anxiously waiting for him to pick up.

Three dials latter he picked up, not a single bit of sleepiness in his voice. “Meeyon, my dear, should I get Yeonghae to the nearest hospital as soon as he’s back?”

She smiled through the pain. “That would...be really appreciated, uncle.” she replied then, puffing a little and trying all kinds of things she had ever seen pregnant people do to get rid of the pain. “Mom’s picking me up. I’ll probably be in labor for a long time so I don’t think he’ll miss it, but... Just...” She inhaled sharply at a particularly painful thump. “Tell him to hurry up,” she mumbled then. “Need to go.” She hung up, dropping the phone on the bed next to her as she clutched at her stomach, face scrunched up in pain.

Not ten minutes later her mother was over at her place, as she was groaning in pain, the phone already clutched in her hand again. She had somehow been able to make her way over to the kitchen from her bedroom, where she was slumped on a chair when her mother ran in. Meeyon found herself glad that she had given her mother a spare key, because she was pretty sure she wouldn't have been able to reach the door on her own anymore.

With a lot of help from her mother, they made it to the elevator and like that down to the ground floor. She stumbled over into the car, after which they were gone in mere instants. Luckily the hospital wasn't too far, so Meeyon soon found herself sitting in a wheelchair, being rushed to one of the delivering rooms. She was panicking slightly, not having anyone who knew something about werewolf births with her. Right before she disappeared into the room, she saw a flash of a familiar face and felt the tension in her shoulders ease a little.

Stuff happened that she wasn't really aware of, and the next moment Minki burst into the room, making her mother look up and then freeze in shock, whereas Meeyon merely reached out her free hand to him, which he gladly took. The next moment another stab of pain made her curl up again, groaning in pain. Her mother, who normally would have probably made a fuss, now merely focused on her, telling her to keep breathing.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, she heard the nurse ask Minki if he was the father, to which her brother laughed heartily and denied that. He was smart enough to tell them that the father would hopefully be arriving soon and to therefore certainly let Lee Yeonghae into the room. The pain subsided not long after, making her able to think more clearly. She decided to just close her eyes and wait, as she really wasn't up for family discussions and explanations of why her brother was there at that moment.

Yeonghae was there in about ten more minutes, panting like he had run all the way from his house to the hospital. The moment he said his name to the nurse he was allowed in and rushed to Meeyon's side, messily greeting her mother and his brother-in-law, but then focusing solely on Meeyon after that. “Hey love, I'm here, I'm with you,” he said.

His voice made a smile appear on Meeyon’s face, and she softly squeezed his hand, opening her eyes slowly to look at him. She turned her head a little to look at her brother then, who immediately nodded. Her mother got a look next, but was less quick to get the hint, trailing around a little longer. Meeyon sighed and then spoke.

“Mom, I refuse to listen to you and oppa fight outside of this door, so just get along with him. He made mistakes but we all do and he's still your son,” she then said. “I don't want to be lecturing my mother while getting my first child, so please just do as I say.” The finality in her voice made her mother understand how serious she was, nodding as she fussed over her some more, before finally leaving the room. It was then that Meeyon tugged softly at Yeonghae's arm, lifting her head a little to show she wanted a kiss.

Yeonghae quickly gave her what she wanted and whispered everything was going to be all right, that Henry was outside sending her good vibes. It was a hint to her so she would know Henry would use his talents if her parents were reluctant about Minki. She smiled, just keeping him close enough in order to reply to him.

“I don't care if they eat each other alive, they're childish and they should get over it themselves.” she told him, a soft chuckle in her voice. The next moment she gasped for air, however, clutching his hand tightly as she tried to curl up. The nurse was at her side again in an instant, feeling at her stomach and checking her pulse, for whatever reason that might be necessary.

“They're coming in closer intervals already, it shouldn't take too long,” she then told them, sending an encouraging smile Meeyon's way. “It'll be over before you know it.”

Yeonghae held her hand tighter and lowered to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I'm right here, love, keep holding my hand and soon we will hold on to our champion. There's nothing to worry about.” He reassured her, a werewolf's birth was no different from a human's birth, there really was nothing out of the ordinary to worry about.

Meeyon held on to Yeonghae's hand as the waves of pain kept returning. At some point the nurses told her that she should start pushing and once she started that, everything became a haze of pain, trying to breathe and push at the same time. Then, just as sudden as it started, it ended again and a baby's crying filled the room. She smiled in relief, Yeonghae's face the last thing she saw before her eyes drooped closed.

When she woke up again she was resting on a hospital bed. The walls of the room she was in were a soft beige color. There was a television, a couch, an armchair and a small dresser scattered around the room. She could see two doors, one probably leading to a bathroom, the other one to the hallway. She could also see a few flowers in a vase next to her bed and a frame with a picture of her wedding day.

There was no-one in the room, yet she didn't have to wonder long why she was alone. Soon a door was opened and she could see Yeonghae exiting the bathroom. Once he noticed she was awake, he smiled brightly. “Hello, love.”

“Baby?” she mumbled, still slightly groggy by the painkillers they had given her.

He nodded. “A healthy and strong baby boy. He is in the baby care center. They were waiting for you to wake up so they can bring him.” He walked closer and kissed her forehead, before taking some little device on her bed and pressing a button.

Not long after a nurse came in and smiled upon seeing Meeyon awake. “I'll bring your baby right away.”

She smiled, reaching out for her husband and pulling him closer by his pants. Once he was standing right next to the bed, she leaned in to rest her head against his leg, just enjoying his body warmth and breathing in his scent.

“Did my mother and brother kill each other?” she then asked softly, not caring that it probably would look weird to anyone coming in that she had her face pressed against his upper leg.

“No. Henry helped convincing them that your brother used the money he stole to make his own business and not to gamble. They discussed a little and your brother promised he would give the money back with interest. Henry once again helped in making you parents accept his money. It was a good thing Daroll came by to bring Younghyun to see you too. From now on Big bro is working with Daroll hyung and they are business partners,” Yeonghae chuckled amused as he caressed her hair. “Don't you want me to sit on the bed so you can cuddle me and I can cuddle you and we can both pamper our boy?”

“For now I like your leg just fine,” she sighed softly, leaning against him a little more. “I'll reconsider once they bri-” Right then the door opened and the nurse came in, carrying a bundle in her arms. Meeyon sat up. “I reconsidered. Find a spot next to me.” she said, her eyes fixed on what she knew was her baby, arms stretched out so she could take him. The lightweight was put in her hands and she slowly lifted her little baby to look at him, a smile already present on her face. Once she looked into his eyes, she felt a surge of love rush through her, the feeling for this tiny little human so intense that she got tears in her eyes as well.

“Hello there, little one.” she whispered, gently resting her son against her stomach and stroking his cheek. He stared up at her with hazed eyes and a blank expression, but she was certain he knew she was his mother, just like she knew he was her son. They had lived in one body for nine months after all. With all her attention on the kid, she basically forgot all about Yeonghae or the nurse, touching his face ever so gently and whispering all kinds of nothings to him.

Yeonghae took his seat and marveled over the little boy and how Meeyon was so affectionate towards the baby. He sneaked an arm around her middle and rested his body against her, lifting a hand to touch the baby's cheek as well while smiling at his son. “Hey, champion. Mommy is really beautiful, right?” he spoke to gain both their attention.

The baby looked at Yeonghae and then started crying, making the new daddy pout. The nurse smiled at that. “He is hungry, you better give him his first meal, mom.” she said.

Meeyon didn't hesitate for even the slightest moment as she pulled down the hospital shirt a little and put her son against her breast, helping him to find the nipple so he could drink. It was a strange sensation, nothing close to sexual, and she stared in awe, her attention focused solely on the little human she was holding.

Yeonghae silenced and watched the baby eagerly moving his little mouth and filling his empty stomach. He was feeling so complete, so elated. Nothing else mattered in that very moment to him. When the baby finally let go, he smiled and took the frail being in his hands, placing him on his shoulder and lightly patting his back. He got advised to do that by Simon, so he could build up their father-son bond.

When her son was taken from her, Meeyon suddenly remembered her husband. She pulled her shirt back in place and slipped her arms around Yeonghae's middle, muzzling her cheek against his so she could still look at their son. “He's beautiful,” she whispered then. “What shall we call him?”

“Looking at you two just now, I think Daejung is a perfect name,” he replied as the baby softly burped and he pulled him from his shoulder. Even though he gave their son back to Meeyon, he didn’t let go of the baby's little hand.

“He should sleep now,” Meeyon said, curling her arm around him protectively again the moment Yeonghae gave him back to her. With a little effort she managed to drag her other arm from around Yeonghae as well – she seemed to not want to let go of either of her two boys – and pulled the blanket a little higher over herself, in order to not catch a cold.

“Don't fear to sleep once he does, I'll look after you both from now on.” Yeonghae whispered, kissing her head and then singing a lullaby for his two loves. The little boy fell asleep first, but before Meeyon could sleep as well, the nurse came closer asking to take the baby back to the care center.

The mere thought of having her son taken away from her made Meeyon frown, immediately wide awake again as she pulled her son a little closer against her, making sure she wouldn't wake him. For some reason she even had to do her very best not to snarl at the nurse, so she kept her eyes averted in order to not raise any questions about the anger in them.

“Can't he stay here with us?” Yeonghae also frowned at the nurse, but managed to respond to the woman's request.

The nurse smiled. “It's standard procedure of the hospital, sir. Your wife will be discharged very soon but while she's also recovering, we take care of the baby at the care center. I think it's ok to leave him with you for a little longer, however. I'll come take him in after he feeds again, then.” The nurse bowed and left the room.

“I don't want her to take him.” Meeyon said rather possessively, leaning closer to her husband.

“I know, love, but I think they take the baby to bathe him and do all those tests to see if he is doing well. You'll probably be discharged tomorrow so we can have him for ourselves from then on. Until he thinks he is great enough to live alone, that is.” Yeonghae joked, lightly touching his son's cheek.

Meeyon allowed herself the luxury of leaning in and pressing a kiss on his cheek, moments later focusing solely on their son again, who was still just as asleep as before. “I like Daejung, by the way.” she then mumbled. “It really fits.”

“Right. I'm starting to get jealous. I want some love too.” Yeonghae joked again.

“You got all my love for the past ten years,” she protested, but she was smiling anyway. “Let someone else have it too now.” Saying that, she wrapped the arm not holding the baby around Yeonghae's neck and pulled him down to give him a decent kiss.

He kissed her back smiling in it. “I'll be less possessive but you have to give me love too,” he spoke after and then he added: “Henry, is coming with a few visitors. Let me open the door before he knocks.”

“You do that, go be a gentleman. I'll fix my hair in the second it takes you to get to the door.” she replied, running a hand through her hair and then making sure the piece of clothing she was wearing did not show off anything that only Yeonghae was allowed to see.

Yeonghae meanwhile walked to the door and faked being surprised when he opened the door to see Meeyon's parents walking to the room with Henry, Younghyun and Minki. “Oh, I was just going to go look for you. Be quiet, though, Daejung is sleeping.” he spoke softly and moved to let the visitors in.

By the time they reached the door, however, Meeyon's head had slumped back against her pillow and her eyes had slipped closed, knocked out by sleep the moment she had allowed herself a small moment to relax. Nonetheless; her arm was still holding the baby close to her, as if that would keep him from all the danger in the world.

“Well, it looks like my two loves are sleeping,” He smiled and skipped back to Meeyon's side, making sure she wouldn't loosen up her hold on Daejung.

It was surprising to Meeyon how easily the baby seemed to fit in her life. She dropped out of work for a few weeks to take care of the baby at first, refusing to leave that to other people. After a while she had to go back if she didn’t want to lose her job, however, so she finally allowed Soohwan to look after the young Daejung, thereby losing some of her possessiveness over her child as well, which wasn’t really a bad thing.

Life passed smoothly from then on. Where Daejung was three weeks old one day, it didn’t feel a day later when they celebrated his first birthday. He easily found his place in the mansion and the Alliance, even being loved by the usually not-so-fond-of-children Chungyeol. Shinil was probably most fond of him, though, the four year old boy obviously excited about having someone to play with and Daejung soon proved to be a big fan of him as well.

What was most surprising about Daejung was that he hardly ever woke up overnight, being a very deep sleeper. If they put him in bed at eight in the evening, he would sleep on till seven in the morning, which was right when Meeyon got up to get ready for work, so no one was hardly ever woken up by his crying. Daejung also laughed a lot, smiling at everyone who would talk to him. It was very easy to take care of him.

All in all, Meeyon loved her two boys – the little one and the big one – and she was happy that at one point she had made the choice to have a try at children. Even living in the mansion with all the others, they still had moments with just the three of them and at such times, she would always enjoy seeing Yeonghae play with his son. Daejung obviously made Yeonghae very happy and seeing her husband happy was like an instant happy pill to Meeyon herself.

But a werewolf is destined to fight till his last breath. While the irrakas were patrolling the territory, they noticed a raise in the number of riddens in the east part of the city. Some very easy and quite boring battles, but it was focused in a part of the city were the openings to the spirit world were few. It felt strange to say the least.

To make sure there was not a trap being placed, Daroll asked the hunters to focus their patrols around the West and South parts of the city while the vampires would take a focus on North and the wolves would fake to fall into the trap. It happened once the uratha sent the majority of its warriors there. Some stronger Spirits tried to break into both the mansions but got disappointed when they faced both with human and supernatural defenses.

The trap was overcome and Soohwan sent what he believed to be his final order as the Alpha. “If I don’t come back from this fight, Wonshik should be the new Alpha.” The words were carved deeply in every member of the pack.

The pack managed to track the Spirit controlling the minions and also discovered it was the very same Spirit that had ordered the attack to Daroll’s territory back when Yeonghae and Meeyon were still figuring out their own feelings. The Alliance was certain; the hunters would protect the mansions in the human world with the vampires while the urathas would go to the spirit world to bring the spirit down definitely. The battle would be risky and there was a high chance a few of them wouldn’t come back alive.

Yeonghae was cuddling Meeyon while Daejung was sleeping in between them when he explained everything to her. “We’ll be off during my moon to be sure the Rahu will be strong enough, but we will be back. I’ll be back for you and our son; it’s a promise.” he whispered in her ears to make sure the fact the fight would be extra dangerous wouldn’t scare her more than necessary.

She huddled a little closer into his embrace, nodding against his chest. Although she was still worried about him, there had been so many fights in the past years that she had grown used to the idea of her husband going off fighting against all kinds of supernatural evil. She stroked the hair of their son and smiled at the sight of him, before looking up at Yeonghae.

“When you get back...” she then said. “I’d like to discuss the when and how of me becoming Henry’s blood doll. I’m thirty now, I don’t think I want to get much more wrinkles to be eternalized.” The last part was said in a bit of a joking tone, but also slightly serious.

He nodded. “You can do that while I’m away. I really don’t want to be around when you forge a bond with Henry.” Yeonghae sighed. To him it was a great sacrifice to have his companion become so deeply bonded with a vampire, but for the sake of having her beside him for a long as he lived, he was up for it.

She hummed something distinctly agreeing, before reaching out and taking his face between her hands. “You better get back safely. I’m not going to raise our son all by myself.” she told him sternly before leaning in and claiming his lips in a kiss that wouldn’t have been appropriate if Daejung had been awake.

He responded to her immediately, agreeing between the kisses and then distancing himself to add: “When I am back, I’d like some rewards... Our first time, with you having as much strength and stamina as I do will certainly be great.” he half joked. She laughed then, muffling the sound by pressing her face against his shoulder so she wouldn’t wake Daejung.

“You’ll have to wait a little longer than that, I don’t want this change to happen just yet,” she said when she lifted her head again. “If you come back in one piece I’ll think about it.”

“Think with all the love you have for me,” He nuzzled his nose in her neck before adding: “Let’s follow Daejung’s example and sleep. Tomorrow I’ll have to instruct the pups.”

“I agree.” she said, gently lifting Daejung up so they could scramble under the blankets too, their son in between them.

Almost one week later, the wolves departed. The only members of the pack staying behind were Seungi and the two irraka pups. Their uncle had ordered him to stay, because Wonshik could deal with the favorable spirits if needed. Seungi was too much of a peace maker to go on the fight, Soohwan figured his diplomacy would be needed if Minki would still be against his sister starting to drink vampire blood.

Yeonghae gave a kiss to his sleeping son at the same time as Sunhi kissed hers. The two kids were soundly asleep on the same bed after a whole afternoon playing with uncle Sungmin and uncle Henry. The two urathas then kissed their companions with promises to be back soon and then had to leave right after. Sungmin patted Simon’s shoulder while Henry hugged Meeyon.

“They will be back soon. All of them. Kangdae has to be back. He has the tastiest blood from all the urathas I tasted so far.” Sungmin tried to break the tension, even though he was just as worried as the others. The Spirit they were after was known as a very merciless and strong one.

“You only drank from him and Seungi, hyung.” Henry protested but Sungmin huffed. “I drank from a few pure blood and heck they tasted odd. Still nourishing and all, but still odd. I also forced Chanhyeok to let me drink once and yes, he was tasty but not as much as Seungi and Kangdae.”

Seungi slapped his head. “Whoever listens to you speaking now would certainly say we’re all gay. You should find a companion soon, Sungmin.” The cute vampire pouted, causing some laughter amongst the five of them. Meeyon did her best to make sure that she didn’t laugh too loud, as always thinking of her son first.

“If you’re all gay, I’d have a bit of a problem in my marriage, though.” she then countered amused. All of them looked at her, especially Simon with his wide-eyed expression. He was silently praying for forgiveness for thinking further into the gay talk just moments before.

“What problem would you have?” Sungmin questioned.

“If everyone is gay then my husband would be too...” she hinted, trying to make them understand her train of thoughts. “Not sure how I’d feel about that.” She suddenly looked at Henry. “Threesome?” she then asked, completely serious.

Henry blinked at her and Seungi laughed. “When I said ‘we’re gay’ I was talking about Sungmin, Kangdae and me. No worries Meeyon, you’d only have gay cousins in law. Daejung is proof enough that Hae is totally straight.”

At that Henry seemed to find his voice again too. “Yeah, Meeyon, I like Hae a lot but I’d rather have you alone.”

To her right, Simon gasped in shock, whereas Meeyon herself merely reached out a hand to ruffle his hair. “I’m sorry, Ryry,” she said casually. “I come in a joint package with my son...” She left a short silence before adding. “… and my husband whenever he’s close enough to object against being left behind.” There was a playful grin on her face when she lowered her hand from his head to his hand, taking it gently.

Henry smiled at her with that sweet smile of his and nodded, expecting no less from her.

“Need to talk to you,” Meeyon suddenly said after looking at him for a while. She smiled shortly at the others in a sort of greeting before pulling him along with her, upstairs to her room.

He sighed following her without a second thought to it, already knowing what she wanted. “Meeyon, are you extra sure you want it?” She smiled as she pushed her bedroom door closed behind them, walking over to the two armchairs in the room Yeonghae and her used whenever they just wanted to sit and relax a little.

“Yeah I am,” she then said as she lowered herself onto one of the chairs. “Sure as I can be about giving up part of my humanity to be with the love of my life until he dies. But that’s just the drama version. I’m sure.”

Henry nodded. Before leaving, Yeonghae had asked him out to have a talk away from other supernatural ears to inform him Meeyon had decided over the Blood Doll discussion. The werewolf had said that Henry was allowed to take it to the next step while he was away fighting. But Yeonghae also made sure to pass the point that he was going against his own nature allowing that, because sharing his bond with Meeyon was a great sacrifice and he would not accept a betrayal from him. Henry was in fact the second vampire he liked the most after Younghyun for saving his back so many times before.

“Ok, Meeyon, be done as you ask. I’ll make sure to put my control over your will to good use.” he smirked, showing clearly that he was spending too much time around Younghyun and Chungyeol. “But I have to tell you something first... I don’t know when or why but I certainly fell for you. Maybe it’s the way you walk beside Yeonghae, the way you give yourself to him and the way he moves around you, it always makes me jealous. I mean it when I say I’d have you if there was no Yeonghae in the equation. I know I can’t have you but I’d ask you one thing; would you let me taste your blood?” he confessed and asked, seriously looking deep in her eyes. She looked back at him for a moment, taking in his serious and honest expression, before smiling and reaching out her hand to him.

“You’re not getting my neck for that, but you can,” she said softly. “If ever Yeonghae doesn’t return, you know I’ll leave too, but for what it’s worth, aside from Daejung you’re the closest anyone can get to making me change my mind and stay,” There was a soft smile gracing her features. “I agree that if there would be no Yeonghae I’d be yours, but there IS Yeonghae, don’t ever forget that.”

Henry nodded. “I know, Meeyon, and for as long as you two live, I’ll make sure it will remain like that. Yeonghae is certainly the uratha I like the most.” He ignored her hand and moved closer indicating he wanted access to her neck. “Can I?”

She leaned back as he moved closer. “Henry, I said not my neck,” she scolded softly, her eyes flickering over his face.

“Please,” he softened his expression into a pleading one. She shook her head once more, obviously not wanting him to ask on. He sighed in defeat moving away and taking her hand in his anyway. “Is your wrist ok, then?”

“Yes it is,” She lifted it a little higher, as if offering it to him, and silently waited for him to do whatever was going to happen. He lifted her wrist to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on her skin, taking in the subtle scent of her blood before sinking his teeth and taking a taste of it.

She sighed at the sensation, which was not at all painful but actually filled her with something she could best describe as pleasure. Her eyes slid closed without her realizing it, her breathing ceasing to be for a moment.

He drank her blood for quick five beats of her heart, licking the punctured wound and then looking at it as it disappeared without leaving any mark. He held her hand tighter and smiled sadly. “I think I can’t do it yet, Meeyon. I’m not ready to make you my blood doll.” He spoke softly as the lingering taste of her blood told him something he was not expecting. The love she felt for Yeonghae was indeed running strong in her blood.

For a moment longer she was silent, until she finally opened her eyes, taking in a deep breath. That was a bad idea, however, as the distant smell of blood made her feel slightly sick and then downright nauseous. She swallowed, trying to get the feeling to leave, but that didn’t work.

“I think I’m going to faint,” she randomly commented then, much alike to one of the first things she remembered having said to Henry. “Or throw up.” she added after a moment’s consideration. Henry slightly panicked and then moved away from her to open the bathroom door coming back to her all in what felt like three seconds. “Hang in there, Meeyon.” he said.

She made a run for it then, straight into the bathroom that Henry had opened for her, right in time to double over in front of the toilet and empty her stomach in it. When she straightened up again, she put a hand on her middle and closed her eyes, breathing in and out deeply before walking to the sink and cleaning her mouth and face with water.

“Ugh...” she finally spoke when she grabbed a towel to dry her face. “Perhaps we should wait a while, yes. The idea of drinking blood isn’t really appetizing either,” She then looked up at him, an amused smile already back on her face. “But while Yeonghae is gone I allow you to hug me all the time.”

Henry smiled at that. “Now I am really jealous, only being allowed to have you while the official husband is away. This life of the lover was not made for me. Don’t you have some nice friend’s neck to give me? I offer life for as long as I live.” he mused reaching a hand for her.

“And have to share you with someone else? I’m sorry, I’m too selfish for that.” she retorted with a small smile, easily taking hold of his hand and then taking a step towards him so she could rest her head against his chest. She let out a soft sigh, wrapping her free arm around his middle and curling her fingers in his shirt.

“Oh I’m so lucky!” He chuckled holding her back, just to turn serious then. “Meeyon… How does it feel to have a son?”

“Like the world will fall apart any minute and he’s going to be smack in the middle,” she said in an amused tone, before growing more serious too. “But it’s something really, really wonderful. I can’t explain how it feels to have something so small and alive that is partly yours. To feel so much love for it even though it’s been in your life shorter than anyone else...” She smiled, muzzling her nose against the skin of his neck in an affectionate gesture. “It’s really wonderful.”

“Yeonghae hyung was always jealous of Younghyun hyung because he had found a love he could keep for all his existence, and even if he knew he would fall in love too someday… A human life is like a few months in an uratha’s life,” He mumbled, rocking her in his arms gently. “Yet Yeonghae hyung will be able to extend his time with you all because we formed this alliance and you love him that much. You can have kids and see your love growing as a new life, but we vampires can’t. We can only have a ‘kid’ if we turn someone into a vampire. The tables are turned... An uratha was jealous of a vampire because of love, but now a vampire is jealous of an uratha because of life.”

She leaned against him, closing her eyes and enjoying his presence. It was different from being with Yeonghae, where she would never feel like she was close enough. With Henry there was a sort of peace in her, calm and understanding. Moments like these made her realize how much she could really relax in his arms. “Why?” she asked softly after a while of silence. “Do you want to have kids too?”

Henry smiled sadly but didn’t reply, when he opened his mouth again it was to say: “Daejung woke up, I think he wants dad or mom to cuddle. You better go to him, Meeyon.”

She smiled and nodded, letting go of his middle and walking to the bathroom door, but the hand she was holding his with never let go and so she softly tugged him along with her, not wanting to leave him alone like that. “I’m sure he won’t mind some company from his uncle.” she piped up.

Henry lowered his head and let the memories flow free as he walked with her. They were faded, much the opposite of everything he remembered after Daroll embraced him in his last requiem. Henry had Meeyon on a very special spot in his heart, probably because she was so similar to _her_ ; the only woman he had ever truly loved, the woman he once had so close and that was going to grant him the bless of raising a child. But those days were troubled, and the place they lived at was emerged in a war. On one fateful day, his small city was invaded and many innocents were brutally killed, including his beautiful, pregnant wife.

Meeyon would never know how close Henry had been to feel that wonderful feeling of having a kid. He had been so close, yet fate took that away from him. He had been going to his last breath when he felt cold hands holding him and a breath on his neck. Then came the blissful feeling of his wife’s touches clouding his mind. He had felt weaker and weaker, but a faint male voice had told him to drink something. He had felt something against his mouth, some strange liquid being poured past his lips, and then he drank. There had been some need to drink it and drink more until the thing was taken away and everything went black.

When he had woken up again he had been in a comfortable bed and Elena had been looking at him with a sad smile. “Welcome back. Here starts your eternal existence. You’ll live your own requiem.” she had said.

Henry saw Meeyon taking Daejung in her arms and cuddle the little boy, looking at him then with that sweet smile of hers. He saw his wife in her and what could have happened, had they both survived that assault.

“Meeyon... Thank you for giving Yeonghae such a gift,” he said, smiling at the little boy then. “Hey, champion, you have to grow strong to protect your mom, you hear me?”

The boy sent him his happy giggle, holding his finger with a strong grip. Meeyon rested her head against Henry’s shoulder at that, smiling at the sight of her dear son and her best friend together. Now all that she wanted was for her husband to return safely to complete the fairytale-like image.


	11. Epilogue

The air inside the house had seemed too stuffy, so I went up to the roof of the house. There was a great view of the skyline of the city at night, some lone stars trying to make a difference. I breathed in slowly, letting the air fill my lungs and then breathing it back out.

It felt freeing, standing on the top of such a huge building, yet at the same time also scary. It was a long fall down, after all.

It was a rather silent night. Shinil and Daejung were asleep, so there was no joyous laughter from the young boys, and the others were all keeping themselves busy, although I was pretty sure someone was keeping an ear on me to make sure I was alright. It happened all the time lately, as if I was something fragile that needed close care or I would die.

Well, perhaps sometimes that was true, but I was feeling pretty healthy on top of the roof in the fresh air.

My eyes wandered over the houses and city lights, until I was just blankly staring at the horizon, my thoughts distracted from the house and its inhabitants to someone who was very, very far away.

There was a smile on my face without me even realizing it, but after a while it died away, when my thoughts ended at exactly what this someone was doing at that moment. I breathed out again, watching my breath form a tin cloud in the cold night air.

“You know what I told you...” I spoke softly, not really sure why I was standing on a roof talking to no one – or someone, but he couldn’t hear me. “… that if you don’t come back I will leave too.”

I sighed, closing my eyes a short moment. “I have to go back on those words. I have to stay for at least a while longer,” I smiled softly, crossing my hands in front of my stomach.

“I owe it to our children,” I then said, and admitting it out loud for the first time felt like a huge relief washed over me. Then I chuckled, which turned into a carefree laugh. I listened as it died away, seeming to echo a little longer in the night.

“So you better get your butt back here, Lee Yeonghae. I’m not raising two kids on my own.” I then said, earnestly, fixing my eyes on the biggest light in the night sky. The gibbous moon had never shone brighter than that night.


	12. Blue Moon: My mom is cool

It was a sunny afternoon. Shinil had just arrived home with his uncle Yeonghae who was carrying his daughter Kyoungjin – only five years old. She was crying because ‘Kyoungjin wants mommy!’ and Yeonghae was trying his best to calm her down because ‘Daddy was there.’ Shinil thought it was cute how his uncle was failing at making the little girl stop crying and how Daejung – his seven years old cousin – kept looking at them with a worried expression. Shinil himself was securely holding his younger sisters hand, Saenan – only six months younger than Kyoungjin – as she kept asking him why her cousin was crying.

Once the front door was opened Shinil ran inside pulling his sister along, eagerly looking for a particular uncle but ending up seeing another one. Nevertheless, he ran in his direction then, with open arms as said man greeted uncle Yeonghae, as the latter rushed to find auntie Meeyon, Daejung only sent his uncle a wave as he followed his dad without a second thought.

“Uncle Hyeok!” the little boy shouted and said uncle opened his arms to grab him in a hug and swirl him around. When Saenan stretched her little arms to him as well he cuddled her close giving the little princess kisses on the cheeks.

Once the greetings were over uncle Chanhyeok let Saenan in his arm a reached a hand for Shinil to take. While taking the kids to the kitchen, uncle Hyeok happily announced that he had made lunch for everybody already.

Lunch with his family was always noisy and fun. Usually when he was asked about his day by his father, he had nothing much to say. But that day it was different. That day he had a tale to tell.

The first uncle to get to the table aside from uncle Chanhyeok was uncle Seungi. He messed up Shinil’s hair and greeted him with his lazy smile, gave Saenan a little kiss on the cheek and then sat down. Then it was his auntie Meeyon with uncle Yeonghae and their two kids - Daejung was now in his dad’s arms and Kyoungjin in her mom’s, clinging like there was no tomorrow. Once auntie greeted him, he ran to her and gave her and his little second-degree cousin a peck on the cheek. His younger sister followed his steps but also gave uncle Yeonghae a kiss. The two kids went then back to their seat after excitedly waiting for the rest of the family. 

As usual his father shouted from the front door that he was home and Shinil eagerly waited for him to get to the kitchen so he could be squished by both his parents since his mother would come down any minute as well. He loved his mother’s hug because she was so awesomely warm. Once daddy Simon and Mommy Sunhi did all the pamper to him and his sister and the kids pampered them back and also their one year old brother Shinhee, they all sat down side by side on the table.

Once that was over, uncle Wonshik came down as well with auntie Linyue and also uncle Gwangjin, so obviously there were more pampers to all the kids.

Shinil was looking from one uncle to the other and back until his smile fell once uncle Chanhyeok started serving the food. “Where is uncle Kangdae?!” he demanded to know with a pout and everybody looked at him and then at Chanhyeok once the later started talking.

“Uncle Kangdae went out with uncle Sungmin, but he said you must be all set and ready for when he’s back because he won’t wait for you and will drag you out even if you’re naked,” He quickly looked at daddy Simon then. “Don’t look at me like that, tell your brother-in-law to manner his speech.”

Nevertheless, the little boy smiled brightly and nodded happily. They started eating then, and that was when the awaited question came. “So, Shinil dear, how was your day, sweetie?” This time it was his mother who asked, but it didn’t matter.

“It was great! Mrs. Shin asked where our parents worked at and her face was really funny when I answered!” the little boy spoke happily. Mommy Sunhi and daddy Simon looked at each other and then at their son.

“And what did you answer her, son?” that was the second question little Shinil was waiting for.

“I told her daddy was an incredible lawyer and mommy was a singer and dancer!” came the happy reply, causing all uncles and aunties to stop eating and looking at him. Of course Saenan, Shinhee, Daejung and Kyoungjin ignored his words and kept on eating, looking at the adults with curious faces.

“Then she asked me what mom sings and I told her that mommy works in uncle Dal’s night club, singing and dancing to the customers. Her face was really funny again! She then asked me if daddy was ok with that and I nodded. I told her daddy was ok with it because he knew everybody that worked there, from the security to the owner, and because uncle Kangdae worked there too. She smiled a funny smile and asked who uncle Kangdae was. I rolled my eyes and said he was mom’s older brother of course.” Shinil didn’t even seem to breathe as he babbled away happily, and everybody was focused solely on him.

“Then she tried telling me I shouldn’t say mom works in a night club as it is something bad. I got a little angry with her because mom has a good job, so I told her that I didn’t think the night club was bad, because nothing bad happened there ever and because I trusted all my uncles working there. She then questioned me if I knew the name of the night club and I told her that of course I knew and that uncle Kangdae had taken me there once and the juice they serve there was really good.” The little boy took a small breath before continuing.

“She gasped loudly and widened her eyes at me, like daddy does from time to time, and asked what the name of the night club was. She made the funniest face off all when I said that it’s the RedCat! She stopped moving, just looking at me and then asked if I was really telling the truth. I nodded and all the kids started mumbling. One of my classmates said I was lying and I really got angry. So this Friday or our daddy or our mommy are supposed to go to school to talk about their jobs and I want mom to go! Is it ok if uncle Dall goes too?” the boy babbled on happily and everybody looked from Sunhi to Wonshik.

“I’ll ask uncle Dall if he is free,” Sunhi answered her son a few moments later and resumed eating. Shinil nodded enthusiastically. Simon looked at her and his eyes were clearly saying ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea...’ But really, they called her son a liar and like hell she would allow that.

After everybody finished lunch, Sunhi took Shinil to take a bath and change his clothes while Shinhee was already asleep. When they were in the living room again, Saenan was playing with Daejung, while Kyoungjin was pulling her dad’s hair and not letting him work like he was supposed to do. He had a song to hand in in two days, but now had reason enough to be distracted and not do what he was supposed to.

Not long after, Kangdae entered the house, calling for Shinil. The boy rushed to him without a second thought, getting squished by his uncle and then receiving a pat from uncle Sungmin who had come to visit after stealing his uncle Kangdae. The two left to the aquarium after that, because Shinil had a report to write about underwater animals and the aquarium was the best place to get information from – other than have a great time fooling around with his favorite uncle.

All in all that next Friday, the kid’s parents came talking about their jobs in front of the class. There were lawyers, teachers, architects, doctors, and even an astronaut. Of course Sunhi was late because Daroll had forgotten he was supposed to go with her and was still not ready.

Shinil’s classmates started questioning where his parents were and the boy was getting annoyed with all the teases and the other classmates calling him a liar. Mrs. Shin ended the visits and went back to her normal subjects. About ten minutes had passed when there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Shin opened it and her eyes widened as she faced a tall, handsome man with dark blond hair and an angelic single dimple smile. His pale skin contrasted with the deep brown orbs that were his eyes. That was definitely Park Junghwa, one of the richest men in South Socheon.

A soft hum made her snap from her admiring daze and she noticed a shorter woman with beautiful wavy black hair, wearing some extremely expensive black dress with a golden belt. The woman smiled taking off her black shades. “I’m sorry for being late I hope I can still talk about my job. I’m Shinil’s mommy, Choi Sunhi.” She introduced herself, and Mrs. Shin gaped a little. Seeing his mother, the boy happily waved so she could see him, to which she sent him a flying kiss.

The teacher allowed the two inside and many ‘wows’ could be heard from the class. Mrs. Shin called Shinil to the front and asked him to introduce the visitors.

“Classmates, this is my mommy Choi Sunhi, and this is uncle Park Junghwa, mom’s boss.” The kid smirked victoriously at the boys who had been teasing him not long ago.

“Hello, kids. My Shinil told me he said I’m a singer and dancer. Well, I’m an entertainer, really. I cover some artists and at some points I also do the choreography. I work at the RedCat because it’s Junghwa-ssi’s possession and he is our family’s friend for a long time now.” she spoke softly and her melodic voice enchanted the kids.

One of the girls raised a hand. “Yes, little princess?” Sunhi smiled friendly.

“Are you rich too?” the girl asked and Sunhi chuckled. “My husband is not in the richest men list but we have a very stable life, even though my father did hold the fifth position on the list before he passed away.” Hearing that the teacher gasped again.

“Can you show us what you do in the night club?” a boy asked and Shinil glared at him because he was one of the boys that were teasing him.

Sunhi smiled again and nodded. “Surely.” She said before singing to one of the hits in the music industry. One that didn’t require dancing, of course. That was enough to amaze all the kids which made Daroll crouch down and call for Shinil’s attention.

“Why exactly was I supposed to come here for?” he questioned with a smile and Shinil threw himself around his uncle’s neck.

“To show them you’re a good friend of dad’s.” Shinil replied and Daroll picked him up. 

He eyed the kids before speaking with the softest voice he could. “Today, for Shinil’s request and also as a way to assure the school that Sunhi has a serious job, I will give free one-entry passes for the kids’ parents.” He passed a pack of little cards to the teacher while still holding Shinil. He then passed the boy to his mother and shot a stunning smile the kids’ way.

Mrs. Shin thanked the both of them for coming as they excused themselves back to their job. Once Shinil sat back at his desk, a boy behind him whispered to him “Show off!” 

To that Shinil turned to him and smirked, one really similar to his uncle Kangdae’s smirk.

“Well, I’m sorry if you’re not rich.” the reply then came.

Shinil learned it early: you don’t mess with the Alliance.


	13. Black Moon: Awakening

She looked around the empty village, everything seemed abandoned in a hush of despair, she walked slowly not sure of where she was heading to. She was wearing a light white dress that reached her ankles, her long wavy brown hair dancing with the soft breeze, bare feet touching the ground, the dirty of the road making them itchy to be cleaned, but she kept on walking.

The city was illuminated by torches, the fire warming the cold night, there was no moon in the sky and the stars were shining so brightly. Something moved in the dark but she couldn’t see what it was, strangely she didn’t feel afraid, but protected. Soon she crossed the village and walked out of it, to a tower, a white luminous tower half hidden in the forest.

She felt her heart beating fast, that’s what she was looking for, she needed to reach the tower, it was calling for her, whispering her name in some long forgotten tongue. She walked closer and closer and she could finally see the magnificent golden door opened for her.

But the beauty of the white marble and golden tower was not the thing catching her eyes; it was a red wolf sitting in front of it that drained her attention. The moment her eyes locked with that creature’s the world seemed to freeze and the voice calling her name got weaker and weaker. She moved to the wolf like through a thick liquid, it was like something was trying to pull her away from the beautiful animal. But she wanted to touch it, she wanted to hold it, having her heart screaming it was hers, forever hers.

Yet the eyes contact was broken when the wolf stood up and entered the tower, a loud call of her name made her heart waver and yearn for the tower again. She walked freely at that, the world seemed to be turning again as she crossed the door and run up the infinite staircase. There was something up there she needed to reach.

It seemed like her legs went numb, her ears could hear nothing but the soft whisper of her name, she saw sparks in the air and then she suddenly reached another door. It opened up for her revealing a golden room, and in the middle there was a high, a thick book opened up on it. The red wolf was there, sitting on the ground looking intently at her.

But this time she didn’t see it, the book was calling her. She walked in a daze to the high, her eyes landing on the ink and the beautiful white long feather in a golden holder. She looked at the book and saw many names written on it, her parents’ names were there, and she knew she had to write her name there as well. That was the sole reason she was there.

She took the feather and dipped it in the ink, her hand moved to the book, but the moment the feather touched the rough surface of the old paper someone else called her name.

She turned around alarmed, her heart twisting in pain. There was no wolf anymore, just a naked young man, with soft white skin, black short skipped hair and black sad eyes. He was looking at her with sad and anxious expression, reaching his hands for her as if pleading for her to hug him. 

_“Don’t write your name there. Please. I love you.”_

His voice was sweet, was pained and it made her heart burn with pain and happiness, she knew then she loved that person in front of her.

The feather fell from her hands and everything turned black. 

It was just a dream.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

Chanhyeok was busy cooking lunch, Yeonghae was there helping him up while Kangdae and Gwangjin were at the garden doing some exercise, Seungi was out with his companion and Wonshik was writing down another book. It was a peaceful day for the pack, but not for long.

Their Alpha suddenly called for them and soon all the urathas were gathered in the living room of their mansion, Sunhi nicely seated near her father with a worried expression.

“What’s the matter?” Wonshik respectfully bowed to the Alpha as he questioned. The elder uratha was holding on a letter and his expression was grim.

“It’s a letter from the Alpha from Mokpo, the one that had found Yeonghae. He is asking assistance from us since he allowed Yeonghae to join us after his first change. There’s disturbance in the spirit world there and they are in dire need of an irraka. The one they had died recently.” The alpha spoke slowly, looking intently at Chanhyeok, the young uratha understood then the Alpha was thinking of sending him on the quest. “Chanhyeok, you must go assist them. Listen to what Dongwha would order you. _But no matter what happens there, you must come back alive._ ” Came the Alpha’s order and Chanhyeok felt his whole being accepting the words with no second thought to it.

“Yeonghae you can go with him, you must miss the friends you made there.” Soohwan looked then at the cahalith who bowed smiling. He indeed missed the friends he had made in that pack when he was nothing but a lost puppy.

The two cousins then prepared to leave, Yeonghae was excited to see his friends and Chanhyeok was looking forward to prove his abilities were part of his Alpha’s pride. The other members of the pack wished them a good journey, and asked for them to come back as soon as possible since with them out they would have only Wonshik to cook something edible. The pack laughed heartily at the comment when hugs and pats were shared.

Since the mission was urgent they had no time for a long trip preparation, hence why the two cousins decided that traveling in their wolf form would be faster, they could ask for clothes once they got in Mokpo. Chanhyeok would eventually sprint forward leaving Yeonghae far behind, what had earned him some scolding from the cahalith, but nothing the irraka would listen to, after all Yeonghae was the younger.

It took them half a day of run to reach their destination and it was clear from a distance how instable the barrier between the words was. Chanhyeok ordered Yeonghae to go greet the pack protecting Mokpo while he would look around. The younger had protested over that but Chanhyeok’s serious words made him go anyway.

“When I get to talk with Dongwha hyung I want to tell him what I could trace. He will probably order me to go look around so there’s no need to lose precious time with formalities. He is not my Alpha.”

When the irraka was left alone he searched for the most unstable places, finding some openings with a great disturbance. The most interesting one was placed inside a house, he could swear the opening was not natural, but he was sure there was some extra energy controlling it.

There could be only one answer for that. There were mages in Mokpo.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

That night’s dream would not leave her mind. It was so vivid and strange and the way her heart would beat every time she recalled that young man’s face was enough to make her blush and criticize herself for having such inappropriate dreams. Even if she had never seen that guy before – and maybe he didn’t even exist.

She was leaving the house to go buy some food her mother needed in order to make dinner when she felt something was moving at the limits of their back yard. She looked back with an unsettling feeling searching for what could have made that rustle but saw nothing.

She shrugged the strange feeling and walked on her way to the market. It took her less time than she expected to reach the small store and buy all the necessary ingredients. It was strange how she felt like there was someone following her around. She was sure there was someone observing her but she could not find the eyes that were looking at her.

The moment she left the store she looked in the direction of her favorite bookstore. She looked at the sky and concluded that she could skip there for a few minutes, at least to check if the book she had ordered had arrived or not. She was half way there when her eyes landed on two young men talking nearby the store’s door. Her heart started to frantically jump in her chest and she felt it could fail her any moment due to the strong rhythm. One of the guys was the one in her dream, she was sure of it.

Without exactly knowing why she was expecting the guy to look at her but he didn’t, it was the other boy who did and it made her feel disappointed. She entered the bookstore without further ado, quickly asking for her book and getting as reply they were expecting it in two days. She smiled and bowed to the old man behind the counter, she felt a strange need to be out of the store and try once again to have eye contact with that mysterious guy.

She felt disappointed yet again when she noticed the two had already left the street, who knows to where. She could do nothing but go back home and help with preparing the dinner. Somehow her dreamy attitude had called the attention of her parents who asked if there was anything wrong.

She found herself then telling her parents all about the strange dream and the guy. There were these moments when her parents would ask her things and she would blurt out the answers even if she didn’t exactly want to do so. She only omitted the fact that she had seen a wolf and that the guy was naked in her dream. Her words made her parents visibly agitated. And it raised her curiosity. “Don’t get close to that young man, my darling, for nothing in this world.” Her mother asked with a small voice and she was left wondering why she shouldn’t.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

“Are you really telling me there are mages in the city and we should not fight them?” one of the rahus in Dongwha’s pack questioned with an angry face.

“They are probably the ones causing this whole disturbance to destroy us!” another one hissed.

“No, they are not. Sure there are a lot of spirits running free around the city, but you can hardly spot a ridden. All the spirits here are harmless. Yeonghae even spoke with one and it confirmed my suspicions. The mages are of those that can control spirits and open gates to the spirit world. They know the pack exists, if they had wished the end of the pack they would have already acted in that way.” Chanhyeok spoke firmly defending the mages and urging the Mokpo pack not to make a wrong move.

“And why would you believe them?” the first rahu questioned again. “They are enemies!”

“They are not the enemies! They are humans living peacefully and doing nothing to dishonor your territory, they can control spirits but none of them ever attacked the pack. You have an elodoth and an ithaeur! How come none of them talked with the spirits?!” Chanhyeok lost his patience and came to a conclusion that a pack leaded by rahus and consisting majorly by them was really a problem, especially because they had no cahalith and neither irrakas in their pack, in the least he felt amazed that pack survived with only strength for such a long time.

Another thing he felt thankful for was their alliance with the vampires in the east side of Sosari, his pack learned that making amends and having other super naturals as allies was not necessarily something that would maculate their territory. Not many urathas lived like that, executing whoever super natural that set foot in their territory. 

“The real problem is not the mages, there’s a group of spirits taking up a street gang around the outskirts, the mages’ spirits took us there, apparently they trust more in outsider urathas than the ones that actually live here, you can’t live with such weak bond with the harmless spirits.” Yeonghae interfered at that point taking the attention to him. 

He could feel the pack was not at all pleased with them, but they were just speaking the truth. “You’ve asked for our help. We traced the spirits that should be eliminated, but you have to talk with the mages, they are causing the disturbance that leaded you not to be able to find the real problem, but I can assure they are not enemies.” Chanhyeok reinforced once more.

Dongwha’s pack had to silence down when the Alpha clapped for the two cousins with a friendly “I would expect no less from Soohwan’s kids”.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

She had that same dream again, but this time when the guy said he loved her she did walk to him, she saw them kissing and she felt her whole body burning from his touches, his hands firmly holding on to her waist, his fingers skillfully pulling up her dress allowing their lower bodies to touch each other directly. She was then awakened by her younger sister, the little girl calling for her saying she was making weird sounds. She blushed at hearing those words and feeling her body was indeed hot.

She assured her little sister that everything was ok but she couldn’t sleep at all again. She tossed and turned on the mattresses for a few minutes before giving up and walking to the kitchen for a glass of water. When she was rinsing the glass she once again heard rustles coming from the garden. Curious of what it could be she walked outside.

Everything was just too dark to be able to distinguish any moving object but she knew there was something out there. It was almost like in the dream, something was calling for her and she walked, crossed the fence of her garden leading to her family’s orchard. Her steps were slow but firm, she would be lying if she said she wasn’t afraid, but the burning in her heart was making her feet move on its own.

She then heard grows, scratching sounds and whines of pain from some kind of animal, it sounded a little like a dog. She felt something heavy on the air, like there was something evil walking around, that was when her body gave in to fear and she walked backwards, still looking around in search of what could be causing all the noise.

There was a loud grow and then a howl, the air around her felt like something had been exterminated and its energy exploded like a bomb, just without sound or any visible trace. That sudden force in the air made her stumble and that was when she saw it. The red wolf from her dream, intently looking at her.

And like in the dream the world froze, time seemed non-existent and she felt the need to touch that beautiful animal. It seemed like it felt the same because differently from the dream where it had walked away from her, it walked forth. Her body froze when its nose sniffed her neck, when its tongue licked on the same spot mere seconds later, when it looked deep in her eyes and she could see the guy from her dream looking back at her for a split second.

She managed then to raise a hand and touch the soft fur, her body felt weak and she had just one certainty: she loved that wolf.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

The next day Chanhyeok seemed to be out of his cool, he decided to walk around the city like a good tourist would, but in reality he was following _her scent_. Since the night before when the two of them accidentally met in her family’s orchard, she wouldn’t leave his head.

The worst part was that he was in his wolf form, the moment their eyes locked he felt the need to touch her, to kiss her, to make her his. But he could never to that in his wolf form, yet she had allowed him to sniff her scent, to taste her skin and she had caressed him back, she had hugged him and while doing that fell asleep without a single trace of fear.

He had been crazy for morphing back in his human form and carry her back to the house, he could have been killed by her parents if they had spotted him there, sneaking in and sitting their daughter on a chair and placing her sleeping form on the table as if she had looked for a glass of water and fell asleep just like that while drinking it. One thing was certain: the felt thankful for the spirits guarding her for not interfering, for acknowledging what had happened between them.

Chanhyeok was absently minded walking on the street when her scent became stronger. His head snapped up and the breeze hitting his face filled his lungs with her. His eyes found her delicate frame before she entered a bookstore. His body moved on its own.

He politely greeted the old man behind the counter, and in the most natural way possible took the corridor beside the one he knew she had taken. He couldn’t make the old man think he was stalking the girl.

Her scent took him all the way to the back of the bookstore. He didn’t know why the spirits protecting her were being so nice with him, there was not a single soul other than them in that secluded area of the bookstore, and he could tell the spirits would prevent any human to bother them.

She was trying to reach a book in a shelf one head higher than her. He could easily come closer and offer help to get the book, but before he could do so she looked in his direction and the world seemed to run in slow motion. He forgot whatever he had planned to do. The overwhelming crave for her took the better of his body and in the next second he had pinned her against the rack.

They looked at each other as if they were on a stare contest, both afraid that if they would blink the other would have vanished. He could hear her heartbeat, wild bumps against her rib cage perfectly matching his own heart’s pace.

As if on a silent agreement they leaned in, lips brushing against each other, tongues hesitantly sneaking out to touch the other. Her hands moved from the light grip on his waist to his chest, she felt his heart beat then and smiled in the kiss, she moved her hands up to wrap her arms around his neck and shamelessly bringing him closer. His hands slipped from the grip on her shoulder to her waist softly caressing her.

They kept on kissing, breathing each other’s air when needed, never once separating their bodies. “What’s your name?” he breathlessly questioned, his lips still on hers.

“Hyunji” she replied the same way, looking in his eyes when she felt his mouth speaking against hers in a whisper, his voice filling her ears finally giving her a name to call him ‘Chanhyeok’. They had never felt happier knowing someone’s name.

Chanhyeok then raised a hand to caress her face, her hair, his fingertips tracing her jaw line and neck as he broke the contact of their mouths and contemplated her, burning her features in his head, contemplating the words that would leave his mouth right after.

“I know it may sound as a complete absurd to you… but I lo…” his words got cut by her lips, he could feel she was smiling.

“I know… I feel the same way for you.” She had told him and it did the trick. He pressed his body against her, she gasped when he forced one of his legs between hers, their bodies were on fire, their kisses much more heated, her fingers tangled in his short hair, his hands took a firm hold of her waist as he gridded her, none of them caring about what they were doing on a public place.

She moaned in the kiss and he cursed. Chanhyeok loosened his grip on her making her frown. “You have an orchard in your house, right?” he questioned with a serious face and she nodded not getting the reason behind the question. “Meet me there tonight. I will wait until you come.” He told her against her neck, breathing in her scent before completely letting go. There was just a short peck before he vanished from her sight way too fast for it to be possible.

Hyunji heard footsteps then and the old owner of the book store calling her name, some worried edge to his tone that made her snap out of it and fix herself, praying he hadn’t noticed what had happened there. Thankfully he just smiled when he saw her on the floor; she averted her eyes from the book in her hand and asked if anything was wrong.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

He looked up, there was no moon in the sky, the stars were the only source of light so surely he was having a hard time to see what lays in front of him. He looked at his side. Dongwha’s pack was in formation all of them in urhan form.

There were a few flicks of light and he saw ten riddens, unarmed, looking at the urathas with pure hatred, there was some stronger spiritual essence behind them but he could see nothing.

The fight started. Howls, grown, shrieks, the sounds of skin being torn, the familiar smell of uratha blood filled the air, but before his senses could interpret the blurred scene another piercing howl was heard, he knew that howl. He narrowed his eyes in the direction of the stronger spiritual essence, he could tell it was a strong spirit behind the defeated riddens.

He spotted the reddish fur, his fangs firmly attached in something that slightly looked like a human, there were sounds of glass being broken, a blue thick liquid dripping on the floor and then the uratha in gauru form tore the body like a human would tear a piece of paper.

The fight was over. They won. But before he could see his friend morphing back to his human form another strong spiritual presence was felt, mixed in human scent, clearly not an uratha. He saw his cousin jumping at the new enemy. He could hear himself shouting for him to stop, sprinting forward to stop a tragedy but he passed through the girl and his cousin.

He saw a pool of blood. He saw his cousin coming back to his senses as the fur disappeared. He saw tears staining his face, he saw despair. He saw his cousin dead upon a pool of blood.

Yeonghae woke up with his heart beating abnormally. Dongwha asked if he managed to have a glimpse of the future. The cahalith looked intently at the rahu and pleaded.

_“Please, don’t ask Chanhyeok to lead the fight. I beg of you: don’t send him in.”_

‡---------- ● ----------‡

She sneaked out of the house after making sure her parents and little sister were soundly asleep. Her heart was beating way too fast, she had never done such crazy things before, and she was going against her mother’s order for the first time. But Chanhyeok was waiting for her, she knew it was irrational but she could not hold back, her body craved for his touches, she needed to feel him close.

There was a nagging feeling telling her to not give in, to listen to her mother and stay away from that guy. But she loved him, she was madly and unconditionally in love with him, she fell in love with him inside her dream and because of it she knew he loved her as much. If not more. She couldn’t doubt him. 

He heard the rustle of her dress before his eyes could see her perfectly in the dark, it was almost his moon, he knew it was dangerous, but there was something urging him to have her, to make her his, to mark her body as his possession, to fill her with himself.

They shortly looked at each other before making the gap between them non-existent. Mouths attached to each other, hands roaming all around, their garments were sent flying until there was bare skin being pressed against bare skin. He laid her against a cold worktable where they put the baskets full of fruits during the harvest. Its temperature soon became even with their body temperature as Chanhyeok claimed Hyunji’s body. 

There were no witnesses of the act, the spirits protecting the girl made blind eyes to their love. Chanhyeok tried to be gentle but the beast inside of him wouldn’t let him, he was rough, he was like an insatiable animal, but she was not far behind him, unconsciously she used her spiritual energy to match his pace, to satisfy him to the last drop of her energy, she had been born to be a mage, her body knew how to make use of the energy around her.

While she was on high she could feel not only his love and desire, but that there was something else, something dangerous was awaiting for him. 

‡---------- ● ----------‡

Yeonghae was worried, Chanhyeok left in the afternoon before he fell asleep and was not back yet. The cahalith was edgy, he had never dreamt with the death of any uratha, yet that part of the dream was so vivid, so clear it was as if that particular moment was indeed going to happen.

He had planned on waiting for Chanhyeok for as long as it would be needed but asking for glimpses of the future had always taken a great amount of his energy and he ended up sleeping again.

He found himself floating in an empty bright space. “Who are you?” a male voice called from behind him and he turned around, narrowing his eyes at the couple in front of him. The mages had lured him inside a dream. It was bad. Or maybe not.

“Lee Yeonghae.” The cahalith replied with a serious tone not showing any intimidation. 

“What are you?” the woman asked then and it made Yeonghae smirk. 

“What you humans call a werewolf. But my kind is called uratha.” Yeonghae replied and the couple exchanged a glance before the man spoke again.

“You are new here. The urathas that live here don’t have the power to disturb the helm of dreams, how could you open a gate to grasp the future?”

“It was a gift given by our mother.” Yeonghae shrugged. 

“And who is your mother?” the woman asked holding on to her husband.

“It’s Luna.” The cahalith answered shortly causing the couple to nod in half understanding.

“The other guy doesn’t seem to have the same power, we can hardly feel his spiritual energy.”

Hearing that Yeonghae frowned. “He has different gifts. We have something called auspicious, depending on the phase of the moon we first changed we have different gifts. I’m known as a cahalith, one of my gifts is to have glimpses of the future through dreams, the other guy is my cousin, he is an irraka, one of his gifts is to hide his spiritual power. You know we mean no harm, right?”

The woman shook her head, tears falling down and staining her face. “You mean no harm but your cousin will take our daughter. Why is it our daughter?” 

Yeonghae frowned remembering the girl in the dream, the spiritual energy mixed with human scent, but clearly not to the level of an uratha: a new awakened mage.

“There are spirits attempting to claim this city by eating the humans, I’m sure you noticed them sneaking around, we will probably eradicate them soon, so please… don’t let your daughter out of your sight… all I can say is that… my cousin… is deeply in love with her… but mages are beings we hardly have contact with… an accident can happen.” Yeonghae looked down praying for Luna not to take away his cousin’s companion like he had seen in the dream.

“We can’t promise… after all… our daughter is also deeply in love with him.”

‡---------- ● ----------‡

Despite Yeonghae’s plea, Dongwha still sent Chanhyeok to the battle, they all could smell in him what happened during the night and all of them were displeased with what he had done and to atone for that he should fight in the front line. It was his moon and he would be the strongest, he was their trump.

That day Hyunji had expected to spend more time in his company, but as she saw him being followed close by two or three guys she started to worry about him. She could clearly remember the unsettling feeling she could lose him any moment and it scared her.

She went back home thinking of what she could do to help him, what she could do to be of any use for him and the only thing coming to her mind was that dream, the tower and the book, she knew she had to write her name there, but in the dream he always asked her not to, she was torn in what to do.

The moment Hyunji lay on her bed a deep slumber took her to the tower. It was a strange sensation of being awaken inside a dream, she walked to the book, read once more the names of her parents neatly written there with their own calligraphy, this time she was resolute.

She took the white long feather and dipped it the ink, moving her hand right after to the blank spot she would write her name in. Chanhyeok’s voice called for her like it always did. _“Don’t write your name there. Please. I love you.”_

She smiled hearing that, she did turn her head to him but only to reply with a lovingly _”I love you too”_ before turning back to the book and neatly writing her name down the rough old paper.

Hyunji gasped when she felt the awakened power. As she saw the world filled with spiritual energy. The humans were not alone. There were monsters… there were creatures she had to destroy in order to make the world a safe place for those still sleeping. It was her mission since she had finally been awakened.

She turned back to Chanhyeok with a new realization: he was one of those monsters she had to destroy. Was he just toying with her while she was blind?

But her heart broke into pieces when she saw him on his knees, she could perfectly see the patterns of his spiritual energy, it was a sparkly soft blue aura, irradiating tenderness and pain. But it was not the only thing she noticed. There was a pool of blood under him, his legs, arms, hands were stained with blood.

Chanhyeok was also crying, despair so vivid in his eyes as he looked at his hands, no longer looking in her direction. It tore her heart even more. He lifted his trembling hands to cover his face, therefore also staining it with blood. “H-hyunji… I lo-love you…” he stammered, his tears and pain blocking this throat.

He was not toying with her while she was blind.

But by writing her name on the book and formally becoming a mage she had broken any possibility they had to be together. She knew it then.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

When the moonless night arrived the pack silently moved to the destined battlefield. There were more than ten riddens, there were trice that number and it somehow got the pack too much outnumbered.

Yeonghae had made Chanhyeok promise not to morph into his gauru form but in face of such amount of enemies he was forced to break his promise. Yeonghae had just eliminated the last riddens closer to him when he spotted Chanhyeok fighting with the spirit.

From that moment onwards his dream was fully turning into reality. The scent of uratha blood took his senses and he entered in some kind of trance. He watched as if through a thick liquid the moment Chanhyeok bit the spirit making it drip blue blood, how the spirit shrieked, trying to get away from the lethal grip but failing once the irraka managed to hold it in the right angle to tear it in half, as easy as a human would tear a piece of paper.

Yeonghae looked around, he was ready to breathe a sigh of relief at not feeling the extra spiritual presence. But he couldn’t because Chanhyeok suddenly sniffed the air to his left and sprinted. Yeonghae shouted for the rahus not to let him get away but they were all to slow. They run after the irraka gauru but Yeonghae knew they were too late.

Chanhyeok was morphing back to his human form panting and looking like he was ready to pass out, the rahus held him back but Yeonghae run to the body lying lifeless on the ground. He cursed the fact he could do nothing to change that outcome. The mage girl was wearing a white night gown like in his dream. A pool of blood formed under her from the deep opened wounds. It was useless but Yeonghae still tried to stop the blood. He still had a faint hope of saving the girl. He still heard the last breath of her spirit. 

_”I’m sorry… I love you too… Hyeok… live…”_

He heard Chanhyeok calling her name, shouting for her not to leave him, asking forgiveness for the sin he had committed against her. The rahus let him go when they grasped that girl must had been his companion. They had won the battle but that win tasted like a defeat. Chanhyeok was not part of their pack but they knew how excruciating the pain of losing a companion was. 

They will never know what Chanhyeok had to go through that very moment, knowing he had met his companion, the only girl he would ever love for his whole life span, to lose that most important person the next day, and worse to be the one killing her by accident.

They all could feel the turmoil in Chanhyeok’s spiritual energy, it was not surprising when he collapsed upon the dead body of his companion. They all believed his wolf spirit had strangled his flesh, but when Yeonghae pulled him up to at least take his body back home he felt his weak heartbeat, his breathing was minimal, but he was still alive.

‡---------- ● ----------‡

Upon not finding their daughter in the house the mages knew the cahalith boy could not keep his cousin from going to the battle, as they could not keep their daughter to go meet her fate. Having the power to wander inside the dreams and see the future through them most of the time is not something nice since they could never stop a vision from happening.

When they saw Yeonghae carrying her lifeless body back to them her mother broke down in tears. Her father fought back his own pain to be able to ask.

“What happened to your cousin?”

Yeonghae looked at them also crying.

“He is alive, but he is also dead. Without her, he is also dead.”

‡---------- ● ----------‡

Seeing Yeonghae happy beside his companion made Chanhyeok reminisce that one day he felt utter bliss, that one day he felt complete.

Chanhyeok spent years trying to figure out what had saved him on the last minute. Was it Soohwan’s order for him to come back alive? That had been his first reason. But he fought so many battles after that. He could have perfectly given in and let an enemy kill him.

After pondering about it he found his reason to stay alive, even if the other half of him was dead. It had been the last word she had told him. She had ordered him to live.

He was living for his love. Only living for her.


End file.
